25% of young Londoners out of work | In Case You Missed It — Transcript

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1. 0:00Picture this scene. You've seen a job
2. 0:01you love, and it's perfect.
3. 0:04So, you lock in, make a tea, slave over
4. 0:07your CV and application, click submit,
5. 0:10and rejected. Again.
6. 0:15Or even worse, ghosted.
7. 0:18Sound familiar? In London, one in four
8. 0:21people aged 16 to 24 are out of work.
9. 0:25That's 25%.
10. 0:28It's a big stat, and I want to
11. 0:30understand what's actually going on.
12. 0:32From BBC News, I'm Lily May.
13. 0:38>> Over the past year, since May 2025, I've
14. 0:41applied to over 500 jobs, and I've been
15. 0:43rejected from all of them.
16. 0:44I know 500 does sound like a dramatic
17. 0:47number, but unfortunately, it is the
18. 0:49reality that I've faced.
19. 0:50>> Meet Theo.
20. 0:51>> [music]
21. 0:52>> We reached out to him after he appeared
22. 0:54in multiple articles across the media
23. 0:56talking about his struggles finding
24. 0:59work. Hundreds of applications, no jobs.
25. 1:03Let's be real, finding a job is hard,
26. 1:06but right now in 2026, it's proving
27. 1:09especially difficult for young people.
28. 1:12Theo's experience isn't out of the
29. 1:14ordinary. The UK's rate of unemployment
30. 1:16for 16 to 24-year-olds is around 15%,
31. 1:20but London is higher,
32. 1:22a lot higher.
33. 1:23>> So, yeah, according to the latest data,
34. 1:26the current rate of youth unemployment
35. 1:27in London is about 25%. [music]
36. 1:30>> That does feel strange, because when I
37. 1:32think of London, I think busy and
38. 1:35bustling, a place where there's loads of
39. 1:37jobs. By the way, that's Jonathan. He
40. 1:40works at the BBC England data unit, and
41. 1:43rather helpfully, has done a deep dive
42. 1:45into the numbers.
43. 1:46>> What's really interesting to me, and
44. 1:49concerning in this data, is the vacancy
45. 1:51rate. So, how many unfilled jobs are
46. 1:55currently being advertised?
47. 1:57In the most recent data, it's at about
48. 2:00700,000,
49. 2:01which is down. It's been going down, and
50. 2:03it's actually reached its lowest level
51. 2:06since early 2021.
52. 2:08Why that matters is because at the same
53. 2:10time, we've got more young people
54. 2:12looking for a job, it looks like those
55. 2:14jobs are getting harder to find.
56. 2:17And it's in particularly the jobs have
57. 2:19been in industries you often associate
58. 2:21with people's first job. So, things like
59. 2:25uh
60. 2:25uh the uh art and entertainment and
61. 2:27recreation, um or in accommodation or
62. 2:30food area uh businesses. Um so, the
63. 2:34these traditional sort of first jobs for
64. 2:36people seem to be getting rarer to find.
65. 2:38So, I think it's really important to
66. 2:40remember that this data's only looking
67. 2:42at people who are economically active.
68. 2:44Now, that's a bit of jargon, so what
69. 2:46does it mean? That's meaning people who
70. 2:48either have a job or want a job. It's
71. 2:51not actually including the economically
72. 2:53inactive, which are people who, for
73. 2:55whatever reason, aren't looking for a
74. 2:58job or don't have a job right now. So,
75. 3:00people who just uh aren't being factored
76. 3:03into the job market. So, when we're
77. 3:04talking about 25%, we're actually only
78. 3:06talking about people who either want a
79. 3:09job or have a job.
80. 3:10>> This is a really important caveat. All
81. 3:12of this data comes from the Office for
82. 3:14National Statistics.
83. 3:15>> In real terms, what this data means is
84. 3:18that of the people who want to have a
85. 3:20job, one in four don't. So, one in four
86. 3:23young people in London who want a job
87. 3:26don't have one.
88. 3:27The rate of youth unemployment is so
89. 3:29important because it can impact what
90. 3:32that person's long-term economic future
91. 3:36is. Uh there's this term that gets
92. 3:38chucked around, vocational scarring,
93. 3:40which is the idea of the knock-on
94. 3:42effect. So, if you don't get that job,
95. 3:44uh
96. 3:45when you know, when when you're straight
97. 3:46out of university or when you finish an
98. 3:49apprenticeship, then because you didn't
99. 3:51get that job straight away, when you
100. 3:53eventually do get one, you're going to
101. 3:55get it later. You're going to get that
102. 3:56promotion later.
103. 3:58Um you're going to get uh your
104. 4:00progression throughout your career
105. 4:01later. And there's been studies which
106. 4:03have been done which suggest that there
107. 4:05are these long-term impacts are felt
108. 4:08throughout somebody's career.
109. 4:10>> Right. Remember Theo? He was applying
110. 4:13for hundreds of roles with no success
111. 4:16and it was taking a toll.
112. 4:17>> The rejection count stopped at 500
113. 4:20partly I stopped counting.
114. 4:22The thing is as well that the 500 number
115. 4:25kind of understates the actual effort
116. 4:28that went into all of this.
117. 4:31It doesn't include
118. 4:33the LinkedIn outreach, the networking,
119. 4:36walking into businesses and handing in
120. 4:38my CV. It's just tracking formal
121. 4:40applications through job portals.
122. 4:43And
123. 4:45I want to be
124. 4:47honest that
125. 4:48I wasn't throwing one generic CV at 500
126. 4:52companies.
127. 4:53I was tailoring CVs. I was changing
128. 4:56cover letters. I was
129. 4:58editing the order of the skills that
130. 5:01I put on my CV
131. 5:03to be tailored to job descriptions. I
132. 5:05was putting in a lot of effort for each
133. 5:07application.
134. 5:08And what was I getting back?
135. 5:11Realistically,
136. 5:12not the same effort.
137. 5:14There is a specific kind of
138. 5:16demoralization that comes with doing
139. 5:18everything right and still not seeing
140. 5:20results.
141. 5:21I had a good degree, good skills, good
142. 5:24work ethic and it still wasn't [music]
143. 5:25straightforward.
144. 5:27>> Honestly, I get it and Theo isn't alone.
145. 5:30I'm seeing it in my own circle of
146. 5:32friends at the moment. So, what's making
147. 5:34it so hard for young people to find a
148. 5:37job in London? To find out more, I sent
149. 5:40over questions to Makeen Owen, BBC
150. 5:42London's work and money correspondent.
151. 5:44>> I I quite simply events have conspired.
152. 5:47You still have the legacy of COVID
153. 5:49[music]
154. 5:49when a lot of these young people were
155. 5:50meant to be getting work experience,
156. 5:52they were isolated having to stay
157. 5:54indoors and we're hearing from charities
158. 5:56saying that many young people's
159. 5:58confidence was damaged during the
160. 5:59pandemic and some of them still haven't
161. 6:01managed to [music] get that back.
162. 6:03Secondly, traditional businesses that
163. 6:06normally employ younger people at the
164. 6:08beginning of their career like retail
165. 6:11and hospitality businesses are
166. 6:13struggling for a number of reasons. You
167. 6:15know, you've got national minimum wage
168. 6:17has gone up and you've also seen a rise
169. 6:20in national insurance contributions. So
170. 6:22they are less likely at the moment to
171. 6:25employ young people. Thirdly, you've got
172. 6:28AI creeping into the world of work
173. 6:30making it difficult for a variety of
174. 6:33reasons. I think a lot of young people
175. 6:35are finding that it's difficult for
176. 6:37their job applications to stand [music]
177. 6:38out because people are using AI to write
178. 6:40them, but also AI is meaning that those
179. 6:44entry-level roles are being replaced. So
180. 6:47people are finding it difficult kind of
181. 6:49get into the world of work in the first
182. 6:51place. London is often the canary in the
183. 6:53coal mine when it comes to kind of
184. 6:55economic and social shifts and patterns.
185. 6:57[music]
186. 6:58So what we could be seeing here is the
187. 7:00first signs of a really struggling labor
188. 7:02market and charities and organizations
189. 7:04have told us that they're afraid that
190. 7:07this could be the beginning of kind of a
191. 7:08wider ripple effect across the country.
192. 7:11I've been really struck by the
193. 7:12relentless optimism and perseverance
194. 7:15[music] of the young people I've spoken
195. 7:17to. They are tech-savvy, they are
196. 7:20open-minded and most [music] of all,
197. 7:22they are determined not to be beaten by
198. 7:25a gloomy job market.
199. 7:27>> Megan highlights that despite everything
200. 7:30working against them, young people are
201. 7:32still pushing forward.
202. 7:34Youth Employment UK, a not-for-profit
203. 7:36that helps young people find work, say
204. 7:39building resilience in this tough job
205. 7:40market is going to be the key to
206. 7:43surviving it. This is hard. Being
207. 7:45ghosted by companies, throwing your CV
208. 7:48into the void, and constantly
209. 7:50questioning your own worth. 25% is still
210. 7:54a bleak stat, but for Theo, all that
211. 7:57hard work finally paid off.
212. 7:59>> After just about a year of searching,
213. 8:02and the day before my birthday, I was
214. 8:04offered a role as a data and AI analyst
215. 8:07>> [music]
216. 8:07>> at a multinational firm.
217. 8:10And
218. 8:11the thing is, relief isn't what I was
219. 8:13expecting. I was expecting a
220. 8:14celebration. I thought it would feel
221. 8:16I thought I'd feel ecstatic. Um it felt
222. 8:19more like exhaling, if I'm honest. I was
223. 8:22holding my breath for about 12 months,
224. 8:24and someone finally said that I could
225. 8:25stop.
226. 8:26Um
227. 8:28what made this
228. 8:29different is that this was not a portal
229. 8:33application.
230. 8:34>> [music]
231. 8:34>> I didn't find this role on a job board.
232. 8:36They found me because I had been
233. 8:39visible. Networking, LinkedIn, media
234. 8:41coverage, all of that created a version
235. 8:44of myself beyond the two-page CV
236. 8:46filtered by an algorithm.
237. 8:48And [music] they didn't hire keywords,
238. 8:50they hired a human.
239. 8:52Real person who
240. 8:55they could see.
241. 8:56And
242. 8:57that confirms exactly what I was
243. 8:59suspecting, which [music] is that the
244. 9:00bottleneck wasn't my ability, it was the
245. 9:03system's ability to see me. After a year
246. 9:06of being told that I wasn't needed,
247. 9:08being in a room where people [music] are
248. 9:10genuinely glad I'm there,
249. 9:12I'm not going to take it for granted.
250. 9:14And
251. 9:16if I were to leave you with one final
252. 9:19thought,
253. 9:20it would be that I got through the
254. 9:22hardest year of my professional life by
255. 9:24refusing to let the market define me.
256. 9:27The answer was always going to be a no
257. 9:29until it was a yes.
258. 9:31My only job was to make sure I was still
259. 9:33standing when the yes finally he
260. 9:37>> I would love to hear your thoughts and
261. 9:38experiences in the comments. Tell me
262. 9:41what you think. For now, thanks for
263. 9:43watching.