Lord Wolfson, the chief executive of fashion and homewares giant Next, has warned of huge challenges for young people looking for starter jobs
The boss of Next has warned of a “dramatic fall” in entry level jobs and a “crisis” in youth unemployment.
Simon Wolfson also revealed the number of applicants for jobs at Next stores had almost doubled in the past year. Lord Wolfson, a Tory peer, said increased labour costs and slow economic growth were responsible for a fall in the job openings across the economy.
The business chief told the BBC ’s Big Boss Interview: “You can really see a dramatic fall in entry-level opportunities. In our stores just two years ago we had 10 applicants for every single job vacancy in our shops – that’s high.
“Today, that figure is at 19. I think that doubling of applicants for shop jobs is indicative of just how big the crisis is in youth unemployment at the moment.”
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Retail and hospitality firms are seen as being particularly exposed to the UK’s rising unemployment levels, having been hit with soaring labour costs in recent years.
The industries had some of the largest falls in payroll numbers and vacancies in recent months, official figures showed last week. Nearly one in six young people aged 16 to 24 were out of work in the first three months of 2026 – the highest level since 2015.
Lord Wolfson said the “tax on entry-level employment” was partly behind the drop in opportunities, saying last year’s national insurance rate hike and increases to the national minimum wage had pushed up the cost of labour and “has to be reversed”.
But he said that “much more importantly” there needed to be more growth across the whole economy. “If you’ve got fewer jobs, then the people who suffer the most are those with the least experience,” he said.
The retail boss also took aim at the Government’s Employment Rights Act, which gives workers the right to guaranteed working hours over zero-hour or low-hour contracts.
New measures also coming into force next year will stop employers from rejecting flexible working requests without a valid reason. He described the measures as “restrictions on flexible part-time working” and said “the result of that is we will offer fewer hours and (fewer) extra hours at Christmas”.
“That’s going to be bad news for our colleagues who want the extra hours, particularly students … and bad news for our customers because service won’t be as good,” he told the BBC. Next made a pre-tax profit of £1.16billion in the latest financial year and reported an 11% jump in sales compared with the previous year.
Meanwhile, John Caudwell, the billionaire founder of Phones4u, told Times Radio that youth unemployment was “dreadful” and will be made worse by artificial intelligence (AI).
He said the impact of AI will “hit like a tsunami” and “make more and more young people unemployable unless they’ve got skills like trade skills: plumber, electrician, those sorts of skills that are desperately needed”.
Alice Martin, head of research at Lancaster University’s Work Foundation, said: “Young people are entering one of the toughest labour markets in years, facing intense competition for a shrinking number of entry-level jobs.
“Retail and other sectors are changing rapidly, with more online sales and fewer staff needed on the shop floor. That has contributed to a sharp fall in vacancies, leaving many young people facing repeated rejection as they try to enter work.
“But a difficult labour market is no excuse for undermining pay or job security. The ban on exploitative zero-hour contracts is long overdue. One in five workers in the UK is in severely insecure work, without predictable pay or basic protections. These reforms have not yet come into force, so blaming current hiring trends on them is misplaced.
“Young people are especially exposed to low-paid and insecure work, which only strengthens the case for improving job quality and ensuring work provides both security and stability.”
