"You have to work 10 times harder to work for a role that 10 years ago you could have got very easily straight out of university," says 22-year-old business management graduate Charlotte Briggs.

Within two months she had applied for 500 roles.

"It's quite upsetting because I've worked really hard for the last three years to achieve a 2:1 just to be rejected for not having experience."

Although her job search sounds extreme, it may not be that unusual.

According to latest ONS figures, 22.5% of people aged 16 to 24 cannot find work, putting London as the UK region with the second highest rate of youth unemployment. The North East has the highest rate at 24.6%.

The UK average rate is 16.1% - its highest in more than 10 years.

ONS data for London also found:

The above statistics include young people looking for work and is different to NEETs - which only looks at young people not in Education, Employment, or Training.

The unemployment rate for London is likely to be higher as the capital shows the first signs of a struggling labour market, according to Avnee Morjaria from the independent think tank Institute for Public Policy Research.

"You've got the hospitality and retail sector struggling, difficulty in entry points in the labour market, the cost of employing young people," she said.

Charlotte is now claiming universal credit, which she says is a last resort.

Despite this, she does not want to compromise her goal of working in her chosen career, saying there would be "no progression" in other entry level jobs in retail or hospitality.

Theo dal Pozzo, 23, has a first class master's degree in computer science.

"I've applied for over 500 jobs and I've been rejected from all of them," he said.

"There's so many people applying to so many jobs using AI and the job listings are being scanned by AI - CVs, everything. It feels very difficult to differentiate myself from other people."

ChatGPT, and other coding tools, are being blamed for a collapse in tech job openings, particularly for younger software developers and engineers.

UK Hospitality, the sector's trade body, estimates around 100,00 hospitality jobs have been lost across the UK since the October 2024 Budget, due to an unprecedented rise in costs.

Chairwoman Kate Nicholls said: "We know that younger and entry‑level workers are typically the first to be affected, as it becomes much harder for businesses to sustain those entry level positions.

"If the pressure on hospitality businesses continues, we risk losing not just jobs, but a vital pathway into work for an entire generation of young Londoners."

Dal Pozzo has been on universal credit for six months and is trying to find work in  computing but also hospitality.

"I've been pub to pub, restaurant to restaurant, haven't heard back from the majority of these," he added.

Trina Rodden from youth unemployment charity The Shaw Trust says they have seen a real increase in young people having self-confidence issues and anxiety, partly due to the pandemic.

"It can either be as extreme as young people that just won't leave their bedroom," she said.

"They just don't want to leave, they're very isolated, and they're totally disengaged."

Hadil Haidar, 22, from Kingston dropped out of university after two years due to "unforeseeable circumstances".

She has applied for more than 70 entry level roles, mainly in the hospitality sector since early November 2025. She has also handed out "countless CVs".

"It can be really demoralising.

"I'm fluent in three languages and I did my GCSEs in a year when I moved to the UK in Year 11. I'm creative and always up for new things. Sometimes I don't feel I'm given a chance to showcase my skills."

She adds that Covid left young people feeling helpless as they tried to manage the transition from full-time education to the workplace and missed out on work experience because of lockdown.

This "looming uncertainty" also contributed to anxiety in young people, she said.

It is not a surprise to hear from LinkedIn that competition for roles is fierce.

However people are creating their own opportunities rather than waiting for them to happen.

The online platform said the number of young people adding "Founder" to their LinkedIn profile jumped 60% year on year with Gen Z (1997 - 2012) in the UK twice as likely as millennials (1981 - 1996) to freelance or launch their own business.

Chief economic opportunity officer, Aneesh Raman, has this advice:

A spokesperson for the mayor of London said it was "a top priority" to support young Londoners in finding "good, well-paid jobs".

They highlighted the mayor's Inclusive Talent Strategy, launched in October, as a "vital step in his London Growth Plan providing £147.2m of investment into a bold new workforce plan for the capital helping Londoners find training, tackling barriers and retaining talent".

They added the mayor had seen "early success with the London Growth Plan" but factors such as soaring costs and Brexit were having an adverse impact.

Nationally, the government is to pay more companies to hire young people, under Labour's latest plan to tackle spiralling rates of youth unemployment.

Firms will get a £3,000 grant for every person they take on aged 18 to 24 who is on benefits and has been looking for a job for six months or more.

But Julia Evans from the charity Spear, said this money could be better spent on helping young people to be work-ready so they can succeed in a job.

Morjaria has said the priority is to enable young people to "earn or learn".

"That's why the government should introduce a youth allowance for 18–24-year-olds, conditional on training or job search and backed by an extended youth guarantee so every young person is offered education, an apprenticeship or paid work experience."

The government said under seasonally adjusted data, youth unemployment in London stood at 18.6%.

"This is unacceptably high which is why we are ensuring every young person has the opportunity to earn or learn," a spokesperson said.

"Our latest major intervention will help to create 200,000 jobs for young people, backed by almost £1bn.

"The broader support package, totalling £2.5bn, will support almost one million young people and help deliver up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn."

Morjaria warns that "long-term unemployment early in life can cause lasting damage to earnings, health and life chances".

"Allowing young people to leave education and drift straight into the welfare system risks permanently scarring a generation," she added.

Despite this, the young people I spoke to had one thing in common - optimism.

"We owe young people the chance to be happy and be themselves, and be productive members of society," said Hadil.

While Theo adds that he is "looking forward towards a future that I know will be better than now".

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