Yesterday marked International Youth Day, a UN initiative intended to recognise both young people’s contribution and the challenges they face, including employment. The latest ONS figures make for sobering reading: an estimated 1.012 million 16 to 24-year-olds are not in education, employment or training, representing 13.5% of that age group.

Youth unemployment is clearly a pressing issue. HR teams cannot solve it singlehandedly, but they can consider whether their own recruitment and employment practices are helping young people into work, or making that first step harder.

Employing young people: the rules aren’t as complicated as you might think

There are some additional rules when employing younger workers, but they are not especially complicated.

Pay: The National Minimum Wage is currently £8.00 an hour for workers under 18, £10.85 for 18 to 20-year-olds and £12.71 from age 21. The apprentice rate is £8.00 for apprentices under 19, or aged 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship.

Working time: Workers aged 16 or 17 should generally not work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. They are entitled to a 30-minute break when working more than 4.5 hours, 12 hours’ daily rest and 48 hours’ weekly rest. Restrictions also apply to night work.

Health and safety: Employers must pay particular attention to risks arising from young people’s possible lack of experience, maturity or awareness of workplace risks. Additional supervision or training may be appropriate.

Children below school-leaving age: More restrictive rules apply, including limits on hours and types of work. A local authority permit may also be required.

Apprentices: Apprenticeships provide an excellent route into work, but employers must comply with applicable apprenticeship, training and minimum wage requirements.

These additional protections are perfectly manageable for most employers and should be viewed as safeguards for people taking their first steps into working life, not barriers to employing them.

Can young workers meet the requirements of your ‘entry-level’ jobs?

If you describe a role as ‘entry level’, look critically at its requirements. Unnecessary demands for experience, qualifications or a driving licence, inflexible hours and recruitment processes which favour candidates already familiar with workplace norms can all create barriers for younger applicants.

If your business uses AI in recruitment, automated processes should also be audited for bias. Screening based on historic indicators of successful employees may favour candidates who resemble those recruited previously, potentially embedding existing age inequalities.

There is also a discrimination risk. An apparently neutral requirement which particularly disadvantages younger people, such as a required period of previous experience, could amount to indirect age discrimination unless it can be objectively justified.

Can positive action help?

If workforce data shows younger people are disproportionately underrepresented, s158 of the Equality Act 2010 may allow an employer to do more than simply hope they apply.

Where an employer reasonably thinks people sharing a protected characteristic suffer a connected disadvantage, have different needs or participate disproportionately less in an activity, it can take proportionate steps to address that position.

For younger people, this might include targeted outreach or advertising, working with schools, colleges or youth organisations, careers events or CV, application and ‘interview ready’ workshops.

The distinction is between encouraging and equipping younger people to compete and simply giving them jobs because of their age. Section 158 is not a licence to operate quotas or automatically prefer younger candidates.

Positive action strategies often focus on race and sex. Where age is considered, attention frequently falls on older workers. International Youth Day is a useful prompt to look at age diversity from the other end of the spectrum.

Getting them through the door is only half the job

From January 2027, the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal falls to six months. One unintended consequence could be that employers become less patient with new recruits. Six months does not leave much time for a young employee in their first job to find their feet, and employers may be tempted to make an early call on someone who appears to be struggling.

But employing and retaining someone at the beginning of their career also brings opportunities. Employers have the chance to shape and develop young employees into their roles, building skills, working practices and potentially long-term loyalty from the outset. A young employee may simply need help understanding professional norms and expectations that experienced employees take for granted. Good induction, mentoring, regular feedback and early support become particularly important.

HR takeaway: Give youth a chance

International Youth Day serves as a helpful prompt for HR to consider the barriers facing young workers in their business. Are unnecessary requirements stopping them getting through the door? Once there, are they being given a realistic opportunity to succeed? HR strategy should focus on removing any identified barriers if at all possible. It is important to remember that, although youth recruitment does come with baggage, it also represents a unique opportunity to shape and develop the workforce of the future in line with specific business need.