SPONSORED: ‘Make the first step into work easier, not harder’

SPONSORED

Youth employment is one of the biggest challenges facing Britain today. Almost a million 16 to 24 year olds are not earning or learning. Behind that number are young people who need a first chance – and an economy that cannot afford to waste their potential.

For many, the hardest step is the first one. A first job, work experience or an apprenticeship do more than build a CV. They give a young person confidence, routine, skills like teamwork and communication, and proof the world of work has a place for them.

Retail has helped generations take that first step. It offers flexible roles that can fit around education and everyday life. Many of today’s retail leaders began on the shop floor or by putting in a shift in a warehouse and worked their way to the boardroom. But for too many young people today, that first rung of the ladder is starting to wobble.

The test for the government is, therefore, simple: employment reforms must protect people from exploitation without pricing young people out of the first opportunities that help them build working lives.

The cost of employing someone part-time on the NLW is up 19% in two years. Changes to employer National Insurance Contributions were the major factor, with the lowering of the threshold bringing many roles into employer NICs for the first time.

The impact is clear. Well over 100,000 retail jobs have been lost in the last two years since the changes were announced. If the Chancellor wants to boost employment, gradually raising the employer NICs threshold would be the practical place to start.

Further pressure is coming through the Employment Rights Act. Retailers support the principle behind the Act: stamping out exploitative practices and giving people greater security. The concern is not the goal, but the implementation.

If the rules go beyond tackling rogue employers, they risk making it harder for responsible businesses to retain and hire the very people the country needs in work. Government should be closing loopholes, not closing doors to opportunity.

Flexibility is not a bad word, and it is not the same as insecurity. For many people, it is what makes work possible: the student who needs shifts around lectures, the parent managing childcare, or the carer trying to hold down paid work alongside family responsibilities.

Employers also need to respond to changing demand, from Christmas trading and summer sales to a spell of good weather. If every temporary increase in hours risks becoming a permanent commitment, some businesses may simply stop offering those extra shifts at all.

The challenge is to improve job security and stamp out exploitation without making it harder for responsible businesses to offer the flexible, entry-level work that helps people get started.

But avoiding harm is not enough. Milburn made clear that inaction is not an option: without positive intervention, today’s NEET challenge risks becoming a permanent skills crisis.

If we want to reduce the number of young people who are NEET, we need to help them get the skills, experience and confidence employers are looking for. That means better careers guidance, mentoring, work experience and employment support. Industry has a major responsibility here, and retail is ready to do more.

Today, 7th September, the BRC announced the retail industry ambition to create 100,000 retail jobs for young people who are NEET within this Parliament. To help deliver it, retailers have worked in partnership with government to launch a new national retail work experience programme. “Opening Shift” will give young people practical exposure to retail workplaces, new on the job skills and a clearer understanding of what employers expect.

For someone struggling to get a foot in the door, work experience can be the difference between feeling shut out of the labour market and believing they have a future in it.

But work experience opportunities at this scale will only be converted into new jobs if employers have the confidence and capacity to hire. Government can help by ensuring well-intentioned reforms do not unintentionally reduce the very entry-level roles young people need.

Government and business ultimately want the same thing: more young people in work, building skills, starting careers and contributing to economic growth. The prize is worth working for: fewer young people shut out of work, more employers confident enough to hire, and a stronger economy built from the first rung up.

Retail is ready to play its part. We now need help from government needs to create the environment that makes that first step into work easier, not harder, for the next generation.

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