Youth Unemployment Catastrophe: 15.8%

 

Youth Unemployment Catastrophe: 15.8% Rate for 16-24 Year Olds – Labour's Tax Tsunami Creating a Lost Generation

 
Posted by Ken Frost – The Loanbuster – 19 May 2026

Blimey, what a utter disaster for Britain's young people!

Today's ONS labour market figures confirm the nightmare: youth unemployment for 16 to 24-year-olds has shot up to 15.8% in the three months to February 2026. That's up from 14.6% a year ago, with a staggering 713,000 young people now on the dole – 70,000 more than last year. The employment rate for this age group has also slipped to 50.5%.

This isn't just a blip. This is a full-blown crisis for the next generation, and the finger of blame points squarely at Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband, and the entire Labour government's economic vandalism.

Reeves's employers' National Insurance hammer – that £25 billion raid on businesses – has made hiring anyone, especially inexperienced young workers, an expensive gamble few companies are willing to take. Why risk taking on a keen 18-year-old when every new starter now costs you a fortune in extra taxes? Result? Frozen recruitment, delayed starts, and graduates left sending out hundreds of CVs into the void.

Add in Miliband's green energy madness driving up business costs, stagnant growth, and a mountain of red tape, and you've got the perfect storm for youth despair.

The grim facts:

• 713,000 young people unemployed – a 70,000 year-on-year surge
• Youth unemployment rate at 15.8% – the highest in over a decade
• More young people economically inactive, stuck in a cycle of rejection and demotivation
• Private sector hiring paralysed while the parasitic public sector continues its bloated expansion

The so-called "experts" and media are wringing their hands, muttering about "structural issues" and "global factors". Absolute cobblers. Real businesses on the ground have been screaming for months that Reeves's tax raids would kill job creation – especially for those starting out. The private sector, the real engine of opportunity for young people, is being squeezed dry to feed Labour's big-state obsession.

This is how you create a lost generation: price young workers out of the market, strangle business confidence, and then act surprised when NEET numbers explode. These kids aren't "lazy" – they're victims of disastrous policy that favours insiders, quangos and union paymasters over aspiration and hard work.

Labour promised opportunity and "growth, growth, growth". What they've delivered is rejection letters, benefit queues, and crushed hopes for hundreds of thousands of young Brits.

The damage will last years – skills gaps, mental health scars, and a generation increasingly disconnected from the world of work. Well done, Starmer and Reeves. History will remember you as the government that betrayed Britain's youth.

Time for serious accountability. These figures are indefensible.

Protect your own kids' futures, folks. Push them towards skills, trades, and self-reliance – because this government certainly isn't creating the opportunities they desperately need.

Amazon Suggested Reads – Arm the Next Generation Against Economic Failure

• “The War on Youth” – how bad policy destroys opportunity
• “Surviving Labour's Jobs Drought” – practical advice for young workers
• “Skills Over Degrees” – building a future the state can't tax away

Ken Frost
Professional Cynic, Chartered Accountant and eternal Loanbuster
www.kenfrost.net – exposing the jobs destroyers since 2005

Appalling Jobs Bloodbath: Unemployment Hits 5.1% Four-Year High – Thanks to Reeves's NI Hammer and Tax Tsunami Squeezing Private Sector Dry

 

Blimey, what a shocker – or rather, what a predictable catastrophe!

Straight from the ONS this morning: UK unemployment has rocketed to 5.1% in the three months to October 2025 – the highest in nearly five years, folks. That's a nasty jump from previous figures, with payrolled employees plunging by 38,000 in November alone (the biggest drop in five years) and wage growth excluding bonuses slumping to its lowest since early 2022.

And the "experts"? The media pundits? They're all feigning surprise again, scratching their heads over this "weakening" labour market. Pull the other one!

If these bubble-dwellers ever bothered talking to real business owners – the ones hammered by Rachel Reeves's £25bn employers' National Insurance heist and the endless parade of tax rises – they'd have seen this jobs apocalypse coming from a mile off.

Reeves didn't just raise taxes; she declared war on the private sector. Her pre-Budget leaks and post-Budget bombshells froze hiring, sparked redundancies, and sent employers scrambling to cut costs before the NI guillotine fully dropped. Businesses aren't charities – slap them with higher employment taxes, and guess what? They hire fewer people, pay lower wages, or sack the lot to survive.

The grim stats don't lie:

• Unemployment at 5.1% – highest since the pandemic hangover
• Payrolled employees down 38,000 in November to 30.3 million
• Private sector wage growth lagging at just 3.9%, while the bloated public sector struts ahead at 7.6%
• Redundancies ticking up, young people hammered hardest
• Employment rate slipping to 74.9%

And here's the real kicker: while the private sector – the engine that actually creates wealth – bleeds jobs and stifles growth, the parasitic public sector swells like a tick on the taxpayer's neck.

Public sector employment hit 6.18 million in September, up thousands while private firms slash payrolls. Lousy productivity? Through the roof in inefficiency – endless bureaucracy, gold-plated pensions, and pay rises that outstrip the private sector by miles. This bloated behemoth is crowding out private investment, sucking up resources, and starving the real economy of oxygen.

Reeves promised "growth". What she's delivered is a jobs graveyard, with the private sector paying the ultimate price for Labour's obsession with big-state bloat.

This isn't bad luck. This is deliberate sabotage – tax the creators, featherbed the takers, and watch unemployment soar.

Time for Reeves to own this mess. Resign? Damn right. But don't hold your breath – she'll blame everyone but her fiscal folly.

Protect your livelihood, folks. Diversify, shield your wealth, and pray the BoE slashes rates to stem the bleeding.

Amazon Suggested Reads – Battle-Proof Your Career in Labour's Britain

• “The Great Jobs Heist” – how government taxes kill employment
• “Survive the State Squeeze” – protecting your income from public sector parasites
• “Private Sector Survival Guide” – thriving despite Reeves's raids

Ken Frost
Professional Cynic, Chartered Accountant and relentless Loanbuster
www.kenfrost.net – exposing the fiscal vampires since 2005