Sustained employment

Over half a million NEET young people in the UK is both a huge waste of human potential and hugely damaging to our economy. That’s why Impetus is committed working in partnership to understand the challenge and support solutions that have real impact.
Steve Haines, Director of Public Affairs, Impetus

As well as working closely with our partner organisations to support young people into sustainable employment, we fund research that offers fresh insight into the relationship between the likelihood of becoming NEET and disadvantage, and take these lessons to policy makers.

Impetus is a founding co-chair of the Youth Employment Group (YEG) alongside The Prince’s Trust, Institute for Employment Studies, Learning and Work Institute, Youth Employment UK, and Youth Futures Foundation. Mobilised during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent the long term scarring effects on youth employment, there are now 300 member organisations, from organisations to local authorities to employers. The YEG is now focused on the short and long-term policies to address the structural barriers to the labour market for young people and protect young people against future economic shocks.

Read about Impetus' other policy and research areas including:

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The Young Person's Guarantee

This paper emerges from a broad series of conversations, discussions, and consultative sessions and is shaped by a range of experts, organisations, and perspectives. On this basis, we propose a transformational offer for our young people: The Young Person’s Guarantee.

September 2023

Securing a place for young people in the nation’s economic recovery: Final recommendations from the Youth Employment Group (YEG)

The YEG recommends that clear objectives are set to monitor progress in supporting young people during the economic crisis and beyond.

September 2020

Youth Jobs Gap: Establishing the Employment Gap

This first report from Impetus' Youth Jobs Gap series shows that there is an employment gap between disadvantaged young people and their better-off peers. This report draws on newly available government data to explore the employment outcomes of young people in England.

April 2019

Youth Jobs Gap: Higher Education

Higher Education is one of the most topical issues in politics, with the UK government’s post-18 education and funding review (the Augur review) due to report back imminently. For the first time, this Youth Jobs Gap report analyses the Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) data, showing the clearest picture of disadvantaged young people and their access to higher education to date, including differences between different regions in England.

May 2019

Youth Jobs Gap: Apprenticeships

This Youth Jobs Gap report uses the Longitudinal Education Outcomes data to reveal how disadvantaged young people are accessing and progressing in apprenticeships, including differences between regions in England.

June 2019

Youth Jobs Gap: The Employment Gap in the North West

The first three reports in the Youth Jobs Gap series have looked at NEET rates, higher education, and apprenticeships. These national reports have also looked at differences between regions – but differences within the regions are often greater than the differences between regions. This fourth report looks at the North West region – drilling down to the local authority area level, including the combined authority areas of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region.

June 2019

Youth Jobs Gap: The Employment Gap in the West Midlands

Our Youth Jobs Gap series looks at NEET rates, higher education, and apprenticeships across the country. Our reports also look at differences between regions and within regions. This fifth report looks at the West Midlands region.

July 2019

Youth Jobs Gap: The long-term NEET population

In our Youth jobs Gap series, we have looked at NEET rates both nationally and regionally. This report looks longer-term, at what happens when a young person becomes NEET, and how this affects disadvantaged young people compared to their better-off peers.

September 2019

Youth Jobs Gap: Benchmarking Resurgo

Benchmarking Resurgo shows that the issues raised in our Youth Jobs Gap series are not inevitable. Young people who take part in Resurgo's Spear Programme move into employment at twice the national rate, showing that Resurgo Spear gets more young people into work and gets them there quicker.

February 2020

Youth Jobs Gap: The Employment Gap in London

The eighth report in our Youth Jobs Gap series, this one focused on London, finds that the rate of young people out of education, employment and training in London is consistently higher than the national average. But it's not all bad news: young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in London are more than twice as likely to go onto higher education than their peers in other regions.

February 2020

Youth Jobs Gap: The impact of English and maths

English and maths are often described as the most important subjects in education, but just how important are they? The ninth report in our Youth Jobs Gap series reveals for the first time the extent to which English and maths GCSEs lead to better outcomes for young people.

April 2020

Youth Jobs Gap: Methodology

The Youth Jobs Gap research series uses new Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to present new insights into disadvantaged young people’s transition from compulsory education into employment. The technical details in this document are important to fully understand how we've used LEO for the Youth Jobs Gap series.

April 2019

Youth Jobs Index 2017

Progress in tackling youth unemployment has ground to a halt. Our second Youth Jobs Index has found that the number of young people spending over a year not earning or learning has increased.

June 2017