Andy Burnham has announced an overhaul of England's education system aimed at tackling rising youth unemployment, telling schools to align their curriculums with local business needs through new technical education routes. The move comes as figures show the number of young people classed as Neet (not in education, employment or training) has risen sharply, driven largely by a record number who are economically inactive rather than actively seeking work.

An estimated 1.01 million 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK were Neet in January-March 2026, up 6 per cent on the previous quarter and the highest figure since 2013, equivalent to nearly one in seven young people. Of these, 613,000 (61 per cent) were economically inactive, the highest such total since records began in 2001, while 400,000 were unemployed; the rise was driven mainly by an increase in young men. The figure has climbed steadily since 2022, following the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, after falling from a post-financial-crash peak of 1.25 million in 2011.