Graduate jobs fall to record low as Labour price young out of work

Eleanor Harmsworth

Mon, February 23, 2026 at 3:30 PM GMT+9 3 min read

Graduate job openings have fallen to a record low in a sign that Britain’s youth unemployment crisis is set to get worse.

Vacancies for university leavers fell 45pc in January compared with a year earlier, reaching their lowest point since recruitment website Adzuna began tracking them a decade ago.

Graduate roles also fell 20pc compared with December, fuelling concerns of an accelerating downward spiral.

There are now fewer than 10,000 graduate jobs on offer across the country, Adzuna said. Just over one million students graduated in the 2024-25 academic year, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

The worrying figures come after youth unemployment jumped to an 11-year high, surpassing European levels for the first time since statistics began.

Labour has been blamed for fuelling the crisis by increasing employers’ National Insurance rates and pushing through inflation-busting increases in minimum wage for under-21-year-olds.

Peter Dixon, at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, has said younger workers “are being priced out of the market”.

Andy King, a former executive at the Office for Budget Responsibility, has called the crisis “self-inflicted”.

Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said: “Labour have decimated graduate prospects by making it far more expensive to employ younger people.

“Ruinous National Insurance increases disproportionately hitting younger workers and an employment rights bill that will make it riskier to take them on. Labour do not understand economics.”

The slump in graduate recruitment comes amid a broader slowdown in the jobs market. Vacancies of all types fell 16pc compared with a year earlier, Adzuna said, marking the worst January since 2021.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: “Our January figures show hiring is approaching pandemic-era levels, and with graduate roles falling to a record low, this suggests the market is far from being on stable footing.”

He added: “For jobseekers in early 2026, the market remains challenging, with fewer vacancies and intense competition, but continued wage growth suggests employers are still willing to pay for the right skills.”

Average salaries rose by 6pc compared to a year earlier to £43,289.

The retail and hospitality industries, which are the largest private-sector employers and provide significant numbers of part-time and entry-level opportunities, have repeatedly warned that government policy is leading to fewer opportunities for the young.

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Adzuna’s data showed job openings in retail fell 15pc year-on-year, while hospitality and catering roles were down 11pc.

Faced with a mounting youth unemployment crisis, ministers are reportedly considering rowing back on a pledge to scrap the youth rate of minimum wage. Options under consideration are said to include delaying the change or dropping the plan altogether.

Alan Milburn, Sir Keir Starmer’s worklessness tsar, has called the levels of youth unemployment a “social catastrophe”. Current figures indicate that almost one million young people not in education, employment or training are “destined for the scrapheap”, he has warned.

Currently, 18-to-20-year-olds are paid £10 an hour, while those aged 21 and older get £12.21. Those rates will rise to £10.85 and £12.71 respectively from April, narrowing the gap between the two.

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