Alan Milburn

It's not a recommendations report.

But I mean, honestly, it's very clear the way that this is written and the way that we've analysed it, that if you really want, as a matter of public policy, to increase the number of young people in work, then what you've got to do is minimise the risks for the employer and you've got to maximise the incentives, OK?

Which isn't to say, and this is the bit of the problem, sometimes the debate just becomes too reductionist.

You know, the truth is the problem of youth detachment and the difficulties that young people are having and breaking into the labor market, getting on that first rung of the career ladder, which sort of feels further and further away for so many people, that didn't begin two years ago with a budget.

That probably began 25 years ago.

It's not a question of two years.

It's a question of two decades.

So this is why you've just got to be, you know, one of the things I'm very cautious about in this is that when you look at the history of all this, you guys know this, you know, there's been no shortage of youth employment programs.

You know, YTS, New Deal, Kickstart.

OK, fine.

But none of them have dealt with the fundamental structural problem that you've got here.

It's a structural problem and it's got worse, not better.

And currently we don't have a system.

And frankly, we don't have the time to deal with it.

No, it's a huge issue.

And I mean, look, there are several aspects to this.

I mean, there's an aspect where people say, well, you know, these young people are flaky, they're snowflakes, they're soft, they're less resilient.

They're talking about their mental health, but they don't really have a mental health problem.

That is not what we found.

We found, first of all, that 84% of these young people want to be in work and training.