By Nick Isles

The unemployment figures are bad.

The rate has risen to 5.1%, which is not far off the pandemic peak of 5.3%. Pandemic excluded, this is the highest rate since 2016. For men it’s worse. The rate is 5.5%, the same as the pandemic.

And it is worse still for the young. The latest NEET figures (16–24-year-olds) show that for the UK in July to September 2025, 238,000 young men were unemployed (130,000 young women) and 274,000 were economically inactive (306,000 young women).

Up until 2018, the male NEET unemployment rate was higher than economic inactivity – since then it has switched. It is estimated that at the end of 2024, there were 146,000 male NEETs who were economically inactive due to long-term or temporary sickness. This number has grown rapidly since the Covid pandemic.

So what is going on? First the rise of diagnosed mental health conditions has led to a generation more anxious, with more self doubt and less self........

© LBC