Fairy Tales of Growth – A Call to Support Young People into Work
By James Callander
There was a land many years ago, beleaguered by slow growth, high inflation, endless bureaucracy and general malaise. The leaders of the land and the rich people met a man with pied colours who had a magic system which was called Artificial Intelligence, and he came to the land; it helped to improve productivity, quietly filled in forms and got the economy back on its feet. When the man with the magic system left, he was not paid enough for his tokens or his data centres. In retaliation, he automated all the jobs of the young people, so they all left. The older people were very sad.
Let’s Get Hiring Again
While I think it has been easy for the media to portray the lack of jobs for young people as all about AI stealing their jobs, the truth is that it is most likely a mixture of things. These factors include the over-hiring after Covid-19, the move to remote work, a slow economy and a general feeling of uncertainty about committing to the future.
I remain passionate that we should champion employment and work experience and help young people into work – it is a lot cheaper economically and socially than the alternative.
Throwing the Babes Out With the Low Growth Bathwater
With a fairly toxic combination of slow growth, high excitement/investment in AI and the increasing cost of employing the most junior people in the UK’s workforce, we are in danger of throwing the babes out with the high minimum wage, high ENI bathwater. This trend must be arrested as the economy and society need to give young people a pathway into the world of work in the months and years ahead.
Freshminds has placed 1,000’s of Europe’s brightest and best graduates into some of the UK’s (and Europe’s) most ambitious firms over the last quarter of a century. While entry-level salaries may have been low, they were a pathway into the world of work, to training and to a future career, promotions and salary rises.
We speak with hiring companies and hiring managers of firms, large and small and can sadly attest that the ‘cost of hiring’ is getting too high. And rather than delivering on its intention to support young people and workers, it is in fact keeping young people out of work. It is therefore not a huge surprise that we are nearly back at 1 million young people aged 18-24 in the UK who are not in education, employment or training.
We have not seen such bad NEET numbers since late 2013, and we are on course to reach the 2011 number in 2027, which peaked at 1.25 million after the global financial crisis.
Can We Have More AI and More Jobs?
While AI will no doubt cause a huge displacement and change in how we hire and how companies are structured in the years ahead, I am actually more sanguine and positive about the future of AI and jobs.
I feel strongly that AI will augment and improve the world of work. I believe it will also enable people to reduce their working time on more monotonous tasks and focus on where the best human impact and fulfilment can be. At a recent Freshminds event in March, we polled 17 of the top consulting firms in the UK, and they planned to invest in ‘more people and more AI’ by the end of 2026.
Sarah O’Connor at the FT published her book ‘We Are Not Machines: The Fight for the Future of Work’ this week (4th June 2026) – and it clearly makes the case for lots of humans remaining highly relevant in the world of work for many years to come. It also cautions us about walking into a dystopian world where we are all just interchangeable machines, managed by machines. We still have agency to guide the technology.
The Problems With Not Hiring Entry-Level Talent in 2026/27
Talent pipeline – you might be saving on entry-level talent now, but where are the mid-level and managers of the future coming from?
Mental health – it’s not been easy for this Covid-19 generation, battling their way through GCSEs/ A-levels throughout the pandemic. They are now finding it impossible to get a job. This can have wider risks, for most people’s mental wellbeing is enhanced by a fulfilling job.
Families of young people – have saved and worked hard to get kids through school and in many cases university. That hard work, investment and time deserves to be recognised.
Tax receipts/ lack of funding for public services – it is a lot cheaper to have people in work, paying taxes than out of work – even at the bottom end of the career ladder.
Most Job Problems are ‘Downstream of Growth’
Over the last couple of weeks, Tony Blair, Rishi Sunak and Freshminds have been trying to make the case for concrete actions and policies that drive growth. We can only afford to pay for world-class public services if we have a growing economy. The job market and future taxpayers will only come to fruition if the economy is growing.
So while many people have said AI is taking jobs, I think that slow growth has taken more, and the fundamental driver of jobs in any economy is growth. Recent ISE (Institute of Student Employers) data indicates that the causal link between GDP growth and employment growth is true for entry-level hiring.
Advice I would give to a young job seeker this summer:
Get familiar with the emerging AI technology – I left school almost three decades ago, but many of my ‘successful’ peers (from a LinkedIn perspective) in the last couple of decades were probably from the techier end of the spectrum and were therefore well primed for the arrival of the internet and the growth in tech companies and the investment world. For young people now, that might be getting them familiar with a range of AI tools.
Build your human skills – learn how to frame an argument, how to be a good colleague, how to debate, how to manage and lead, how to build rapport, and how to influence other people.
Read ferociously – with so much going on and so much change, having a longer-term perspective when everything is instant will be important.
Learn to sell and influence – master the power of the ‘hustle’; you will need to learn to sell yourself now, and that’s a great skill to hone for your career. There may be plenty of rejection, but you’ll need to carry on!
Meet more people - start to build a small network of people you can talk to about work – meet for advice and a coffee – and say thank you!
Get experience – of any type – people who can show they have got experience will shine through, and it will also help you work out what you do/ don’t enjoy doing. Employers are looking for hard work and grit – show you have it.
A lot of firms are using AI for screening applications – and a lot of candidates are using AI to apply for huge numbers of roles. I think whilst this might be a potential channel to apply, it does worry me that you have a mad arms race between AI systems, and the only losers are the candidates who have a poor experience and don’t get a job. Consider looking to apply to smaller companies that don’t use an AI system for screening, if possible.
Don’t panic or be disheartened – while this is an unusually long downward cycle, it is a cycle, and things will come back around – and you need to be ready for the upside!
Whilst the Pied Piper story has a rather grim ending, I am very hopeful we can avoid a Jobsageddon for young people. So consider this a call to those people hiring, running companies, governments and those who know them and have influence on them – please stand up and support the case for getting young people into the workplace, no matter what your political colours!
If you're an employer rethinking how to bring young talent into your business, or a graduate navigating this trickier-than-usual market, Freshminds can help on both sides. We've spent over two decades placing the UK's best graduate talent into ambitious firms, and we know what it takes to build a pipeline that pays off years down the line. Explore how we support businesses hiring graduates, or if you're a candidate looking for your next opportunity, browse current roles and projects to get started.
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