There is common ground that expanding quality sustainable employment must be a key plank of our efforts to rebuild the post-Covid economy and achieve a much fairer society. And there is also a consensus that access to well-paid jobs depends significantly on opening up opportunities to learning and skills for young people and adults alike, especially as almost all occupations are increasingly subject to technological change and the utilisation of AI.

The last 18 months have been transformative. The coronavirus crisis spearheaded intense change throughout society.

The successful vaccine rollout means our economy is reopening and starting to recover after successive lockdowns led to some of the sharpest drops in economic output on record.

Youth unemployment will remain high after other areas of the economy begin to recover, warns a new report from Learning and Work Institute and The Prince’s Trust, supported by HSBC UK The economic cost of youth unemployment, in terms of lost national output, is forecast to rise to £6.9 billion in 2022 The fiscal cost of youth unemployment, in the form of lower tax revenue and higher benefit spending, is forecast to be £2.9 billion in 2022 The long-running scarring cost to young people entering the labour market in 2021, in terms of lost earnings and damage to employment prospects, is forecast to be £14.4 billion over the next seven years A new report released today from The Prince’s Trust and the Learning and Work Institute warns that young people will increasingly bear the brunt of the unemployment crisis, at a growing cost to the UK economy.

New @LearnWorkUK research: Pandemic has widened jobs and skills inequalities, putting ‘levelling up’ at risk launched on the #LockdownAnniversary