Vacancies Are Falling. Unemployment’s Rising. How Do We Support Employers to Create Jobs and Retain People? FE Soundbite 859
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 859: 8th August 2026. Vacancies Are Falling. Unemployment’s Rising. How Do We Support Employers to Create Jobs and Retain People?
This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal by FE News: ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here’s a snapshot of the latest announcements and epic thought leadership articles from sector influencers and thought leaders across FE and Skills this week on FE News.
Gavin’s Reflective Perspective
Edition 859 and 16.5 years of FE Soundbite
So, today is edition 859, that is 16.5 years of FE Soundbite! Wow, 16.5 years… Soundbite launched back in 2009, that was when Barack Obama became president, Oasis split up in 2009, Woolworths closed, the Bank of England dropped interest rates to 0.5%… and Bitcoin was launched! Our first ever Apprentice told me to ‘mine’ for Bitcoin using our computers in the evening… should have done that! I was… a new digital token and currency, it’s for criminals and gamers… it will never make it… how wrong was I?! A lot has happened in 16.5 years! Thank you for all of you who have contributed and receive Soundbite over the years.
Being NEET at 16 or 17 brings a 71% chance of being NEET again by 21
DfE released some interesting data and research with Post-16 education: pathways and outcomes for disadvantaged learners, which tracked 1.7 million young people across three cohorts from age 16 to 21, alongside a separate cohort of 579,750 learners followed from GCSEs through to earnings at age 25. It sets out how far the first year after school shapes everything that follows, and how heavily disadvantage weighs on that moment.
The findings are really interesting: Young people who are not in education, employment or training at 16 or 17 have a 71% chance of being NEET again in at least one year between the ages of 18 and 21, according to experimental research published this morning by the Department for Education. For those NEET at both 16 and 17, that figure rises to 82%. Young people who avoided being NEET at either age face a 21% chance.
Supplier Side for Jobs and Vacancies
We had a really interesting article from Asli Atay from Work Foundation with a very cool article: Skills Aren’t the Whole Answer – Britain’s Young People Need Jobs to Match … and a really good point… when the ONS highlights that we have only 712,000 vacancies… and we have 1 Million NEETs… surely this highlights that employers need help and support to create more vacancies?!
UK job postings are down 11% since the start of 2026
Indeed released their mid-year labour market update… and they have found that the UK job postings are down 11% since the start of 2026 and now stand 32% below their pre-pandemic baseline. So, you can understand that the data and labour market confirms Asli’s point! We have a supply side problem with vacancies from employers!
The Commercial Case For Employers … Remains Too Weak
Rob West wrote a cracker.. and this from Rob really stood out to me… and is the employer’s reality:
The commercial case remains too weak. We talk a lot about the ‘business benefits’ of engaging young people, but we rarely confront the uncomfortable truth that for many employers, the short‑term costs outweigh the short‑term gains. Taking on inexperienced talent requires time, supervision, and patience. In businesses with tight margins or high regulatory pressure, that’s a hard sell.
When you also couple together… the Neurodiversity case… and supporting young… and economically inactive back into work… you can see why we need a multi dimension strategy… and really, a lot of this needs to be able to support employers in work.
Do we need to be thinking about Autism Support for Employers?
Stuart Martin, wrote a cracking article looking at Neurodiversity barriers into work for NEETs… but also adults. He raised an interesting point on data from DWP… The Department for Work and Pensions figures, drawn from the Annual Population Survey, only cover autism however. Other forms of neurodivergence, and neurodiversity as a whole, aren’t collected. The figures that they do have on autism, however, show that in 2023/24 just over 30% of autistic people were in employment. That compares with about 55% of all disabled people, and 82% of people without a disability. It’s among the lowest employment rates of any disabled group recorded.
So we had a really interesting week of thought leadership articles… coming at employability from different angles.
Personally, looking at this from an employability perspective, and from numerous expert voices.. we need both to support employers to create vacancies, but also to support those in work better with health, mental health and neurodiversity support needs!
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Firstly, Numeracy for Life: Showing our workings so far By Lord Agnew, Chair of the House of Lords special inquiry Numeracy for Life Committee
Secondly, Skills Aren’t the Whole Answer – Britain’s Young People Need Jobs to Match By Asli Atay, Senior Policy Advisor, Work Foundation at the Lancaster University
Finally, Green Changemakers – 3 Years On By Dr Lou Mycroft, Green ChangeMaker
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
Let’s Build More Bridges For Young People Into Work By Shazia Ejaz, Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Director of Campaigns
Neuro-inclusion Article Three: One Million Young People and the Case for Building Differently By Stuart Martin, the Founder of George Angus Consulting and of the Neurodiversity-Supportive Standard
Beyond Good Intentions: Why Employer‑Led Pathways Still Fall Short and What Must Change By Rob West, an Education and Skills Consultant
What’s New in the World of FE?
Announcements
More Students Aged 16-18 To Benefit From Half Price Rail Fares From This September
Reports
NEET at 16 or 17 brings a 71% chance of being NEET again by 21, new DfE Report says
Voices
From Opportunity to Employment: Building Skills Pathways that Work for Learners and Employers By Graham Hasting-Evans, Chief Executive of NOCN and President of BACH
By Danny O’Meara, Operations Manager, FE News and