Alan Milburn Warns UK’s Anxious Generation Faces Outdated Work, Calls for Flexibility

Alan Milburn, the government’s jobs adviser and a former Labour health secretary, is set to warn that an “anxious generation” of young people is struggling to adapt to the “outdated world of work,” and he will argue that businesses must offer more flexibility and mental health support to stave off an “economic catastrophe.”

“The country where young people are the generation most affected by loneliness - Author, Luke Mintz - Role, BBC News - Published - Reading time: 12 min It was on a cold October night in 2021 that Adam Becket says he experienced his most defining memory”

BBC

Milburn’s interim report is examining why almost 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds—about one in eight—are not in education, employment or training, with the Times saying it will point to “a rising tide of mental ill-health, anxiety, depression [and] neurodiversity” as a central driver of high economic inactivity.

BBC

The Guardian reports that Milburn will assert that young adults’ brains have been “rewired” by smartphones, and he told the Times that “The system is trapping people in worklessness rather than enabling them into work.”

The Guardian also says more than half of the UK’s 946,000 NEETs have never worked, and that 43% of those classed as unable to work due to a long-term sickness or disability cite mental health problems as the primary reason, up from 24% in 2011.

In a BBC feature, Adam Becket, 26, described moving to Bristol, England for work and feeling that “it felt a little strange,” after which he recalled returning home to Halloween crowds and feeling “like being in another world, a world you don't belong to.”

The BBC says that, according to an Office for National Statistics survey published in November, 33% of Britons aged 16 to 29 report feeling lonely “frequently, always or sometimes,” compared with 17% among those over 70.

Euronews

The BBC explains that Professor Andrea Wigfield, director of the Center for the Study of Loneliness at Sheffield Hallam University, says “This is an increasing problem,” and it links the trend to dispersion, remote work becoming the norm, and contact with friends mainly through social media.

The BBC also quotes Meg Jay, clinical psychologist and author of The Twenty-Something Treatment, saying “A major problem is dispersion; everyone you know now lives in four corners of the world,” as Adam Becket described struggling to know where to start meeting people after leaving London.

Euronews reports that Mental Health UK says more than 90% of adults in the United Kingdom have experienced “high or extreme levels of pressure or stress at some point during the past year,” and it adds that one in five British workers had to take leave due to the pressure or stress they are under.

“England: anxiety disorders among children continue to rise since the COVID-19 pandemic”

Le Figaro

Euronews quotes Brian Dow, Chief Executive of Mental Health UK, saying the charity’s assessment suggests “the UK is becoming a burned-out nation, with a worrying number of people taking leave because of mental health problems caused by stress,” and it describes the charity’s figures as based on a YouGov survey of 2,060 adults, including 1,132 workers.

Le Figaro reports that the Guardian revealed the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) directs more than 500 children to mental health services every day—one every three minutes—and that this represents 4,000 per week, the highest rate ever recorded in Britain.

Le Figaro also says that, according to the NHS’s official figures reported to the British daily, 204,526 new patients aged 17 or younger were referred to a mental health service for anxiety during the 2023-2024 year, compared with 98,953 in 2019-2020, and it quotes Dr. Elaine Lockhart saying “They leave us truly speechless.”