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Millions of workers are bracing for AI layoffs and restructurings. But a growing slice of Gen Z isn\u2019t even making it onto the corporate ladder in the first place\u2014and increasingly, they\u2019re young women.<\/p>\n
PwC\u2019s new Women in Work Index, which digs into Labour Force Survey data on 16? to 24?year?olds between 2020 and 2024, shows that around 1 million young people in the U.K. are now classed as NEET (not in education, employment, or training).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Female unemployment has been drifting downward since the mid?2010s (aside from the COVID spike), but that progress is now reversing. In 2024, the jobless rate for young women jumped from 9.5% to 11.8%\u2014the fastest annual rise since PwC\u2019s index began.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And in the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, released last month, the overall NEET rate ticked up to 12.8%, driven almost entirely by women: While the number of young men locked out of work actually went down quarter on quarter, 13,000 new women found themselves out of the job market.<\/p>\n
While young men still slightly outnumber young women overall, the numbers are starting to skew female. In other words: The gap is closing\u2014and fast.?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just two years ago, young men dominated the NEET data. When Fortune<\/em> first covered the trend in 2024, one in five men under the age of 25 was unemployed\u2014and not actively looking for work, either\u2014despite having just graduated.<\/p>\n Experts at the time said the key reason for the phenomenon was that women were more flexible in accepting job offers that didn\u2019t perfectly align with their career goals post-pandemic. Essentially, male Gen Z graduates were holding out for dream jobs that never materialized because the number of white-collar roles shrank. Instead of taking up a part-time job or an entry-level position outside their field, they disengaged. <\/p>\n But new data suggests that for young women today, unemployment is less about choice. PwC pointed to two key drivers behind the sudden surge in female NEETs: poor grades and deteriorating health.<\/p>\n One in four young women who left high school with low grades ends up a NEET, compared with one in five young men. When low grades collide with a health condition, the damage compounds brutally: A young woman with both is almost four times as likely to be a NEET as the average young woman\u201448% versus 12.2%.<\/p>\n The reason it\u2019s causing unemployment now, all of a sudden, comes down to the sudden shift in career choices for young people who aren\u2019t bookworms, says Lewis Maleh, CEO of global recruitment agency Bentley Lewis.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen young men leave school without strong grades, there are well-established routes waiting, like construction, trades, logistics, which are all hiring right now and don\u2019t require further education,\u201d Maleh explains. \u201cYoung women with the same low education go towards retail, care, or hospitality. These sectors have been shrinking and offer limited progression.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not \u201cWhat are young women lacking?\u201d it\u2019s \u201cWhy haven\u2019t we built them the same paths to employment?\u201d<\/p>\n This is only being compounded further by the current AI race. The increased focus on tech roles is further limiting the pool of jobs available to women, who are less likely to have studied STEM subjects. Another recruiter, Zara Amiry, echoes that the rate of female unemployment is a direct reflection of the roles available right now. \u201cCertain roles tend to have more male applicants,\u201d she adds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Don\u2019t have straight A\u2019s? Not a problem. Amiry says experience is as good as education in the eyes of recruiters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you didn\u2019t get top grades or study a super-employer-friendly subject, you could try to get some free experience while you live at home,\u201d she says, adding that the skills attained will help you make up for what you lack educationally. \u201cIt sounds silly, and it sounds like, \u2018Why would I want to work for free?\u2019 But getting that sort of experience wherever you can will help beat another applicant out of the role.\u201d<\/p>\n She also notes that women tend to judge themselves more harshly when applying. \u201cMen are more likely to apply for jobs even if they don\u2019t meet every requirement, while women are less likely to apply.\u201d The takeaway? Apply anyway. You don\u2019t need to tick every box to be worth interviewing.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re an unemployed man or woman, Maleh says the same rules apply: Come to grips with AI, get any experience you can, and don\u2019t underestimate the power of your network.<\/p>\n \u201cLearn to use AI tools properly,\u201d he says. \u201cPractical AI fluency doesn\u2019t require a degree, and employers are crying out for it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If you can get an apprenticeship\u2014those in digital, green energy, and health tech are seriously overlooked, particularly by young women\u2014then great. But failing that, don\u2019t wait for the perfect opportunity to find you. \u201cBuild proof of what you can do, a portfolio, a side project, et cetera,\u201d Maleh says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe candidates we place at the highest levels aren\u2019t always the ones with the best grades; they\u2019re the most curious, adaptable, and well-connected.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Gen #women #face #unemploymentand #theyre #choosy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Millions of workers are bracin… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[542,15221,2006,752,304,300,2295,522,954,2015,829,15220,167],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What to do if you\u2019re unemployed and haunted by low grades<\/h2>\n