For generations, getting a first job has been one of the earliest steps towards independence. Whether it is stacking shelves, serving customers, working in hospitality or helping in a local business, it probably will not be somebody’s job for life. That is not the point. A first job teaches you to turn up on time, deal with different people, take responsibility and understand the value of earning your own money.
Yet, I think Britain has developed a contradiction. We worry about young people being out of work, while maintaining rules which can make employing a 16 or 17 year old more complicated than employing somebody who has already turned 18.
I am not suggesting protections for young workers should disappear. Nobody under 18 should be expected to work unreasonable hours, be placed in an unsafe environment or have their education suffer because of a job. But there has to be a balance between protecting young people and actually giving them an opportunity.
Young workers aged 16 and 17 have additional rules surrounding working hours, breaks, rest periods and night work. There are understandable reasons for these protections, but employers also have a business to run.
Imagine a hiring manager has two capable applicants. One is 17 and the other is 18. Both could do the job, but one comes with additional considerations about when and how they can work. It is not difficult to understand why an employer might decide that the adult applicant is simply the easier option.
Through my own experience of employment and conversations with people involved in recruitment and management, I have become increasingly aware of this. It is not necessarily that employers do not want younger workers. Sometimes employing somebody over 18 is simply easier.
That should concern us.
Speak to many people from older generations about when they first entered employment and you will often hear a very different story. For many, it was not a question of whether they fancied working. They left school and went to work, often at an age we would consider remarkably young today. In many households there was an expectation that, once you were able to earn your own money, you got out there and did so. Their parents simply would not have had it any other way.
Times have rightly changed and education now provides opportunities that previous generations could only have imagined. But I do wonder whether we have lost some of that expectation along the way. There was an understanding that earning your own way meant hard graft, turning up and taking responsibility.
The figures concern me. According to the Office for National Statistics, an estimated 1.012 million people aged 16 to 24 were not in education, employment or training between January and March 2026. That represented 13.5 per cent of the age group and was 89,000 higher than a year earlier.
That does not mean a million young people simply cannot be bothered to work. Around 400,000 were classified as unemployed, while approximately 613,000 were economically inactive. People can be economically inactive for many reasons, including ill health, disability and caring responsibilities.
Those circumstances matter. The welfare state exists for a reason, and people who genuinely cannot work should have support and security.
But we also need to be willing to ask a more difficult question. What expectations are we setting for those who can work?
From conversations I have had with people around my own age, I have occasionally been genuinely surprised by attitudes towards employment. I have heard conversations where the first calculation is not what job somebody might find, what skills they could develop or where they might eventually want to be, but what benefits they may be entitled to once they reach adulthood and whether they would be better off claiming them.
That does not represent every young person. There are young people across Britain working, studying and repeatedly applying for jobs. Some would take an opportunity tomorrow if somebody gave them one. But where employment becomes something to avoid rather than aspire towards, we should be prepared to challenge that attitude.
Family expectations matter too. Our understanding of work, money and responsibility begins long before our first payslip. If you grow up seeing employment and independence valued around you, that can shape your own expectations. Equally, where long term disengagement from employment becomes normal within a household, there is a danger that those expectations pass from one generation to another.
That is not about blaming children for their circumstances or suggesting every unemployed parent could simply walk into a job. It is about recognising that what young people see around them can influence what they expect for themselves.
Mental health also deserves a sensible conversation. For somebody who genuinely cannot work, support must be there. But we should also recognise the support that can exist within employment itself. Under the Equality Act, employers have responsibilities towards disabled workers, including making reasonable adjustments where required, and many employers go further by offering support such as Employee Assistance Programmes. Whether somebody is an apprentice, working part time or building a longer term career, employment can provide routine, support, friendships and a sense of purpose. For somebody who is able to work with the right support, I do not think leaving working life altogether should automatically be seen as the better answer.
The right job can provide routine, independence and purpose. It gets people meeting others, forming friendships and becoming part of a team. Even if somebody has no intention of staying in that particular job forever, it can still build confidence and resilience.
Work is not always enjoyable. Your manager will not be somebody with which you always agree. Customers will not always be pleasant. There will be mornings when you would rather stay in bed. Learning to deal with that is part of life.
As a young Conservative, I believe work is about more than the amount that arrives in your bank account at the end of the month. It is about independence, responsibility and having the opportunity to build something for yourself.
The government therefore has a difficult balance to strike. Young workers need proper protection, but those protections should be reviewed to make sure they are not unintentionally shutting the very people they are intended to protect out of employment.
Businesses should be encouraged to take a chance on younger applicants too. We cannot tell somebody they need experience to get a job while nobody is prepared to give them the opportunity to gain it.
And we need to rebuild the expectation that, where somebody is able, education, training or employment should be the destination. A benefits system should provide dignity and security when people genuinely need it. But for somebody capable of working, independence should always be the ambition.
Britain cannot complain that young people lack experience while making it unnecessarily difficult for them to obtain it. Nor can we worry about economic inactivity while becoming afraid to talk about the value of work.
Young people need protection and support.
But above all, they need somebody willing to give them their first chance.
