Looking for your first ever job can be a daunting experience at the best of times. Looking for your first ever job in the middle of a global pandemic will only make things harder. 

In recessions, unemployment among young people is normally one of the most visible casualties. In the economic downturn that followed the financial crisis in 2008, the proportion of 16 to 24 year olds who were out of work and outside of education reached 20%. 

As COVID-19 began to spread last year, the government was understandably keen to avoid a repeat of this situation, not least because young people spending time not in education, employment or training – often known as NEET – can have long-term scarring effects on their ability to find a sustainable job. 

Now that we have a full set of statistics for what has happened in our labour market over the first 18 months of the pandemic, it is a good time to ask whether young people have received enough support during this period of unprecedented change.  

Has the government invested enough in young people? Did ministers roll out the right support at the right time? And if a young person enters the labour market now, what are their chances of finding a good job? 

To help us look back over the last 18 months and what it has meant for young people, our two guests are from organisations who work tirelessly to understand and improve young people’s prospects: Harriet McCann is the Head of Policy at the Youth Futures Foundation, and Tony Wilson is director of the Institute for Employment Studies.