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This report explores the challenges facing young people in the contemporary UK labour market. It has a particular focus on young unemployed people and the policies and initiatives to help them find work. A further concern relates not only to the quantity of jobs available to young people, but also the quality. This is important because poor-quality jobs can often act as 'poverty traps' pushing young people into cycles of employment and unemployment rather than acting as 'stepping stones' into decent work.

The report starts by looking at the UK in broader context then outlines changing UK government policy in this area with a particular focus on recent changes. Three separate chapters look at the main actors: trade unions, employers and young people themselves. Finally, the report considers two particular areas of policy initiative that might be used to boost the quantity and quality of jobs available to young people: (1) the inclusion of 'social clauses' in procurement contracts, for example requiring contractors to provide good-quality Apprenticeships as part of public sector procurement processes; and (2) promoting entrepreneurship among young people, that is helping young people to set up in self-employment as a way of avoiding unemployment, and whether there is scope to roll out this kind of policy more widely.

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