The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have performed an analysis of labour market outcomes for young people (aged 16 to 24 years), how the young people were impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Their findings are unsurprising in many ways and optimistic for the future employment prospects of the younger workforce. The main points are:

  • Young people’s employment rate saw a large decline in 2020 compared with 2019, while their unemployment and economic inactivity rates increased.
  • After an initial fall in young people in full-time education in the first few months of the pandemic, the proportion of young people in full-time education increased in the second half of 2020, reaching a new high of 46.8% in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2020.
  • The number of young people employed in the accommodation and food services industry who moved to unemployment or economic inactivity increased by more than 50% in Quarter 2 (April to June) 2020 compared with Quarter 2 2019.
  • Young people who worked part-time moved from employment to economic inactivity at a faster rate than they moved to unemployment in 2020.
  • Young people’s labour mobility (job-to-job moves) declined more during the pandemic than for older age groups.

See: Coronavirus and changing young people’s labour market outcomes in the UK – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)