There were more than 770,000 young people aged between 16 and 24 who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the three months leading up to lockdown, new data has revealed. 

The data released today by the Office for National Statistics, which covers the period of January to March 2020 before the true impact of the coronavirus took effect, shows an increase of 6,000 young people who were NEET, compared with the same period last year. 

Cat Smith, shadow minister for voter engagement and young people, said that past experience showed that recessions and economic downturn disproportionately impacts on young people.

She said: “Prior to the crisis three-quarters of a million young people were not in education, employment or training, and with youth services slashed, escalating student debt and chronic levels of mental ill health, young people were already being denied the opportunities enjoyed by their parents’ generation.

“The government must urgently provide assurances to young people finding it harder than ever before to enter the job market and to stop the next generation being hugely disadvantaged by the economic downturn of this pandemic for decades to come.”

More: Government must invest billions to tackle unemployment

Background: Youth unemployment could rise by 600,000

Boris Johnson: ‘I will look into an apprenticeship guarantee’

In yesterday’s meeting of the Commons Liaison Committee, prime minister Boris Johnson said he would “look into” an apprenticeship guarantee for all young learners to help tackle the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: “We will be doing absolutely everything we can to get people back into jobs and I will look at the idea of an apprenticeship guarantee. It’s something that we would have to work with employers to deliver and we would have to think of the funding for that.”

He added that the government had done “some pretty astonishing and creative things with helping businesses in the last month and that’s the kind of thing we can well consider. We are going to need to take exceptional steps in taking our young people into work.”

Leaders from further education have previously warned of a rise in youth employment as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Last week a group of experts, made up of former government advisers, labour market experts, research institutes, think tanks and organisations including the Association of Colleges, the Learning and Work Institute and the Institute for Employment Studies, said that the government must invest billions in supporting those who have lost their jobs owing to the coronavirus pandemic back into work.

The group urged the government to take urgent action or risk creating a “pandemic generation” of young people with poorer education and employment prospects.