Warnings of youth unemployment ‘crisis’ as shop vacancies drop

Anna Wise, Press Association Business Reporter

The boss of Next has warned over a “crisis in youth unemployment” due to a drop in the number of opportunities for shop workers and entry-level jobs.

Lord Simon Wolfson, chief executive of the retail group, blamed higher labour costs and slow growth in the UK economy for the shrinking of vacancies.

He told the BBC’s Big Boss Interview: “You can really see a dramatic fall in entry-level opportunities.

“In our stores just two years ago we had 10 applicants for every single job vacancy in our shops – that’s high.

“Today, that figure is at 19.

“I think that doubling of applicants for shop jobs is indicative of just how big the crisis is in youth unemployment at the moment.”

Retail and hospitality firms are seen as being particularly exposed to the UK’s rising unemployment levels, having been hit with soaring labour costs in recent years.

The industries had some of the largest falls in payroll numbers and vacancies in recent months, official figures showed last week.

Nearly one in six young people aged 16 to 24 were out of work in the first three months of 2026 – the highest level since 2015.

Lord Wolfson said the “tax on entry-level employment” was partly behind the drop in opportunities, saying last year’s national insurance rate hike and increases to the national minimum wage had pushed up the cost of labour and “has to be reversed”.

But he said that “much more importantly” there needed to be more growth across the whole economy.

“If you’ve got fewer jobs, then the people who suffer the most are those with the least experience,” he said.

The retail boss, who is also a Conservative peer, also took aim at the Government’s Employment Rights Act which gives workers the right to guaranteed working hours over zero-hour or low-hour contracts.

New measures also coming into force next year will stop employers from rejecting flexible working requests without a valid reason.

He described the measures as “restrictions on flexible part-time working” and said “the result of that is we will offer fewer hours and (fewer) extra hours at Christmas”.

“That’s going to be bad news for our colleagues who want the extra hours, particularly students … and bad news for our customers because service won’t be as good,” he told the BBC.

Next made a pre-tax profit of £1.16 billion in the latest financial year and reported an 11% jump in sales compared with the previous year.

Meanwhile, John Caudwell, the billionaire founder of Phones4u, told Times Radio that youth unemployment was “dreadful” and will be made worse by artificial intelligence (AI).

He said the impact of AI will “hit like a tsunami” and “make more and more young people unemployable unless they’ve got skills like trade skills: plumber, electrician, those sorts of skills that are desperately needed”.