Wales Cannot Afford to Lose Another Generation to Unemployment

With concern about youth unemployment highest in Wales, the next Welsh Government must move quickly from rhetoric to practical action: lowering the barriers to hiring, strengthening skills routes, and backing the sectors that give young people their first step into work.

The message from Wales is difficult to ignore. New BRC-Opinium polling shows that 63% of people in Wales believe younger unemployed people need more support into work. That is the highest level of concern anywhere in the UK. It reflects something many families and employers already know: too many young people are finding the route into work narrower, riskier and more uncertain than it should be. If the new Welsh Government is serious about economic inclusion, this must be one of its first tests.

The first thing Ministers need to recognise is that youth unemployment is not just a problem for young people; it is a warning sign for the wider economy. When entry-level roles dry up, the damage lasts for years. Confidence falls, skills stall and communities lose spending power. In Wales, that danger is especially acute because sectors such as retail, hospitality and services have long provided the first rung on the ladder. Retail in particular matters because it offers flexible and accessible work, helping young people gain punctuality, customer service, teamwork and commercial awareness. Yet those same employers are under intense pressure from rising wage costs, National Insurance changes, inflation and business rates. If government wants more opportunities for under-25s, it cannot ignore the cost of creating them.

That means the new Welsh Government should act on three fronts. First, it should make hiring younger workers easier, not harder. Expanding targeted employment support, protecting apprenticeships and improving schemes that connect jobseekers to real vacancies would be a strong start. It should also confront the growing skills divide created by the way apprenticeship levy funding is used in Wales.

Second, it should use the powers it has over business rates and economic development to back the everyday economy, not just headline-grabbing sectors. That means listening to retailers’ core ask: reform the system in a way that genuinely reduces the burden overall, rather than helping one part of the market while heaping more costs on another. Welsh Ministers over recent years have taken some welcome steps, including more regular revaluations and a lower multiplier for smaller retail premises. But Wales still has the highest business rate in Great Britain, and the current system leaves many medium-sized and larger stores paying more, not less.

That matters because these are not marginal businesses. They are often the anchor stores that sustain footfall, support surrounding independents and provide a large share of retail jobs. If those sites become less viable, the impact does not stop at one company’s balance sheet. It shows up in delayed investment, fewer entry-level vacancies, shorter opening hours, empty units and weaker town and city centres.

Third, Ministers should work far more closely with major employing sectors to ensure well-meant regulation does not price out entry-level recruitment. Good employment standards matter, but so does keeping the door to work open. None of this requires a grand gesture. It requires realism, urgency and partnership. Wales needs a Government that understands that helping young people into work and helping employers to hire are not competing goals; they are the same mission. If the next Senedd gets that right, it will do more than cut unemployment. It will restore confidence that in Wales, hard work still leads somewhere.