The report finds that youth unemployment has been more than two and a half times the rate among workers aged 25 and over since 2017. This suggests that, although headline youth unemployment has fallen, the relative position of young people in the labour market has worsened.

Between 2000 and 2008, around 400,000 people aged 15 to 24 were in employment. That number fell by more than half between 2008 and 2012. It gradually recovered in the years that followed, but after reaching 320,600 in the third quarter of 2021, progress appears to have stalled.

The report identifies a sharp and lasting fall in labour market participation among 15 to 24-year-olds as an important part of this apparent contradiction. Fewer young people are participating in the labour market than before the financial crisis, even as participation among older workers has continued to rise.