A friend of mine recently hired a new employee, a young woman in her early twenties. When she failed to turn up at the office on her second day, he called to ask where she was. “I won’t be coming in this morning”, she told him, “I’m not feeling the work vibe today.” My friend replied, “Well you won’t be feeling it tomorrow either; you’re fired.”
Incidents like this play to a common stereotype of young people being lazy or entitled. This may be the case for some, but for many others the opposite is true.
Over the last few years, I have employed half a dozen young men and women in their early twenties and found every single one of them to be diligent, reliable, capable and willing to go the extra mile. Given the pressures young people now face—from competitive exams to the high cost of living—most twenty-somethings know they have to put the hours in to get ahead.
Miriam Cates has outlined the need for Britain to face the issue of its workless youngGB News
Yet while hard workers may be the majority, the data shows that we have a growing problem in Britain with the number of young people who are neither working, in education nor looking for work. Shocking statistics published yesterday show that nearly one million 16- to 24-year-olds are workless, the highest number since 2014 and a rise of by almost one quarter since the pandemic.
The rise has predominantly been driven by an explosion in the number of young men dropping out of—or never entering—the labour market. Since the pandemic, the number of workless 16–24-year-old males has increased by 40% compared to 7% for females. Increasingly for these young men, poor mental health is cited as the reason they cannot work.
This is a tragedy for our country, and for young men themselves. Britain simply cannot afford the huge increase in our disability benefits bill, which has soared to £45 billion a year and is forecast to rise further. With an aging population, expenditure on pensions and health will inevitably rise; we cannot also support large numbers of young men through the welfare system.
And for individuals already signed off work in their early twenties, the future looks bleak indeed. For someone written off so early in life, there is slim prospect of attaining some of life’s important milestones – a rewarding job, buying a home, marriage and parenthood.
Too much is at stake for us to stand back and merely observe this tragic situation, decrying modern youth as ‘snowflakes’ and bemoaning their lack of resilience. We must look seriously into the underlying causes of young male worklessness and seek to reverse this alarming trend.
So why has there been such a stark increase in the number of young men whose mental health apparently prevents them from going to work? We should of course be cautious about mental health statistics. There certainly seems to be a trend amongst schools and universities to attribute a ‘mental health’ label to children experiencing the ordinary ups and downs of life. No doubt some young people themselves exaggerate their difficulties in order to claim benefits.
Nevertheless, there has been a recorded increase in serious incidents such as suicides, self-harming and eating disorders among young people and since 2016 we have seen a nearly five-fold increase in the number of child contacts with NHS mental health services. There has been a 56% increase in ADHD diagnosis since the early 2000s, a condition that affects three times as many boys as girls.
Indeed, the rise in ADHD may be the single most significant underlying cause in the rise in young men deemed unfit for work.
The number of children receiving disability living allowance has more than doubled in the last ten years, and four out of five of these children have been diagnosed with learning or behaviour problems or ADHD. ADHD is a disorder characterised by an inability to concentrate or focus on tasks.
Symptoms include forgetfulness and behavioural difficulties, which, in their most severe form, make it all but impossible to undertake paid work.
We must understand what is driving rising levels of ADHD in boys. Increased time using computers and mobile phones—and less time spent outdoors—appears to play a part.
Between 2020 and 2022—the lockdown years—children’s screentime increased by 52% and the average 14-year-old now spends nine hours a day on some form of screen-based activity. Studies have shown that excessive screentime can exacerbate ADHD, with constant exposure to fast-paced, highly stimulating content such as social media and video games conditioning the brain to expect frequent thrills and making it impossible to engage in less stimulating activities.
It is becoming apparent that an increasingly screen-based childhood is a disaster for children’s welfare; if we are serious about protecting children and preparing them for a world of work, we must limit their exposure to gaming and social media. Last month the Australian government announced plans to ban under 16s from using social media. The UK should follow suit.
We must also stop over-protecting children in the physical world. Fourteen and fifteen-year-olds are more than ready to take on responsibilities and independence, indeed that is the best way to learn. Yet hardly any schools now include work experience in their curriculum and many parents seem frightened to let their offspring out of their sight. If we want young adults—especially young men—to be ready for work, we must allow them to be exposed to appropriate offline risks and challenges from their early teens.
There are also question marks about the use of institutional childcare such as nurseries for very young children. As the cost of living and housing has increased, more and more mothers of under-threes have been forced into full time work. Yet studies show that long hours in daycare at a very young age are associated with increased behavioural problems later on. Instead of subsidising full time institutional childcare for babies of just nine-months old, the Government should use the money to increase child benefit or reduce taxes for parents so, if they want to, they can look after their own babies and toddlers at home.
Finally, we should consider the role of family breakdown in driving poor young adult mental health. Nearly half of children in Britain now experience the separation of their parents during their childhood, a factor that can impact children in many ways and seems to be particularly a risk factor for depression in young men. With boys now more likely to own a smartphone than to live with their father, we must do more to strengthen family relationships.
No doubt the causes of rising young-adult worklessness are many and complex. But the growing problem of poor mental health in young men, especially the rise of ADHD deserves our full attention. Many lives- and our future economy – depend on it.