Can’t work, won’t work: Why is youth unemployment so high?
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Work Christmas parties might be in full swing - but many young people are simply wishing they had a job to go to.
Figures show the unemployment rate has risen again and those aged between 16 and 24 have been hit the hardest.
Nowadays it seems not even a degree is enough to land you a job - so what’s causing youth unemployment and what can be done to reduce it?
Niall is joined by social media influencer and careers adviser Soshanna Davis - better known as the Fairy Job Mother.
Producer: Tom Gillespie
Editor: Mike Bovill
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sky News, the full story first. |
| 0:08.2 | Coming up, UK unemployment continues to rise, |
| 0:11.9 | and young people are being particularly badly hit. |
| 0:15.1 | So who's to blame and what's to be done? |
| 0:18.3 | Add water to your will. |
| 0:26.6 | And know that from that single drop, life will grow. Communities will flourish. |
| 0:28.6 | A better world will be left. |
| 0:31.6 | By leaving a gift in your will to water aid, you'll help bring essential clean water to people who need it to change their |
| 0:39.2 | own lives for generations to come. Add WaterAid to your will. Search WaterAid legacy to find out how. |
| 0:48.3 | For unlimited all-day travel in London, think TFL. With the daily cap fair frozen until March 2027, travel as much as you |
| 0:57.1 | like on tube, bus, Elizabeth Line, DLR and Overground, knowing you'll never pay any more than |
| 1:03.8 | £8.0.0.0.0. Download TFL Go to plan your journey. To the mayor of London and TFL, every journey matters. |
| 1:12.9 | Always use the same card of device when touching in and out for full terms and conditions, such TFL fare capping. |
| 1:20.5 | The unemployment rate was 4.1% when Labour came to power. It is now 5.1%. Do you accept that unemployment has got worse under labour? |
| 1:31.5 | Well, we've also created hundreds of thousands of new jobs in our country. We've had the highest growth rate. |
| 1:37.5 | Sorry, I'm going to come in because you're talking about growth rates. You're talking about growth rates. I'm asking you, do you accept unemployment has got worse |
| 1:44.4 | under labour? I've just read out the statistics the show it has. So do you accept that? Well, the way |
| 1:49.7 | to create more jobs is to create growth. And that is what this government is completely focused on doing. |
| 1:55.6 | It's a really simple question. That's why we've had billions of pounds of additional investment. |
| 1:59.0 | That's my colleague Sophie Ridge with the government minister doing the morning rounds of the TV |
| 2:02.9 | studios on Tuesday, Stephen Kinnock. |
| 2:05.7 | And what he couldn't quite say out loud, but which is blindingly obvious to the rest of us |
... |
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