Star Comment: Milburn has identified the problem of youth unemployment. Now what about he solution?

News that the number of young people not in work, education or training has broken the one million barrier is great cause for concern. But if the forecast of former health secretary Alan Milburn is anything to go by, the worst is yet to come.

Mr Milburn, who has been commissioned by the Government to look at the causes and possible solutions to youth unemployment, warns that within five years one in six 16-24-year-olds will out of work.

This is a tragic waste of potential among people who should be enjoying the best years of their lives.

He warns that there are no easy solutions, saying that the causes of the crisis are multi-faceted and complex to resolve. The hangover from the coronavirus pandemic, the hold that smartphones have over young lives, and a lack of readiness for work among school leavers all play a role.

He warns of a ‘bedroom generation’, saying that anxiety linked to social media was driving inactivity among young people, something that will doubtless resonate with many people’s experience.

But Mr Milburn, who was once seen as a rising star in Tony Blair’s governments, dismisses any link between migration and youth unemployment, and appears to defend Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decisions to increase the minimum wage for young workers and the hike in National Insurance.

This would contradict the assertion by Next boss Simon Wolfson, who this week said that rising costs had contributed to a fall in the number of ‘entry-level’ jobs. Lord Wolfson, who started his career as a 24-year-old shop assistant in 1991, said such jobs were vital in teaching young people the ‘soft skills’ that would serve them well later in their careers.

Others blame high taxation, which makes lower-paid work less attractive compared to life on benefits. The fact that home ownership remains a distant dream, even for many young people in stable employment, is hardly an incentive either.

While the rise in unemployment which took place in the 1970s and 80s, prompted a flurry of activity from successive governments - sometimes with mixed results - the surge in youth unemployment has gone almost unnoticed, masked by relatively high levels of employment among other age groups. But not only is this a tragedy for the young people concerned, if the trend is allowed to continue unchecked, it will rapidly become a multi-generational problem.

Mr Milburn has identified the problem, and he is surely right to say there are no easy answers. But the proof of the pudding will come with Mr Milburn’s next report, due later this year, which will attempt to come up with policies to combat these problems.

If he can come up with a workable solution, no matter how difficult the medicine is to take, then Mr Milburn will have done us all a great service. If not, his work will be just another report gathering dust in the archives.

We hope, for all our sakes, that he succeeds.