Providing more evidence of the UK’s continued over-reliance on foreign labour, new analysis produced by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think-tank has revealed that the number of non-EU workers aged under 25 on UK payrolls increased by an astonishing 355 per cent since January 2020, when the post-Brexit liberalisation of visa rules took place under Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson.
During this time, the young British workforce grew by a paltry 0.3 per cent.
The CSJ’s examination of recent HMRC payroll data found that the number of non-EU migrants aged under 25 on payrolls rose from 82,000 in January 2020 to 370,000 in December 2025.
The reality is that the UK’s crisis in youth worklessness – which should be treated as a national emergency – is being fuelled by the British political establishment’s long-term addiction to mass immigration.
Of course, there are other factors which feed into young people’s worklessness in modern Britain – such as the cultural fetishisation of mental illnesses, lack of vital face-to-face communication skills due to social isolation, and the absence of a truly integrated system where schools, further education providers and employers are properly connected.
There is also the matter of geographical inequality, with Britain arguably being the most regionally imbalanced economy in the industrialised world – London continues to dominate economically, socially, and culturally.
These are all issues which need to be addressed and do not receive the political attention they deserve – largely because mass immigration has been used as an instrument to mask Britain's youth worklessness crisis.
There has simply not been the political will to properly invest in Britain’s youth and to equip them with the skills to thrive in the UK’s competitive market economy – to help provide them with a sense of meaning and purpose.
This is the data we all feared on the distorting effect of mass immigration - | Getty Images
Moving forward, what needs to be done? Firstly, the incredibly lax immigration system we currently have in place must be reformed in a way that makes it much more selective and rigorous. Some may argue that these will result in certain industries collapsing – such as the health and social care sector.
But what Britain needs is a comprehensive and well-funded skills strategy which places a strong emphasis on greater on-the-job practical learning, better pay, and working conditions for the domestic workforce.That means apprenticeships, training, bursaries, scholarships and other schemes to fill jobs with young British workers – not the ‘quick fix’ of plugging gaps with migrants from economically underdeveloped countries, which are hotbeds of religious fundamentalism and sectarian strife.
There must be proper coordination between the government, businesses, and trade unions on this front – a patriotic alliance that does away with the long-standing adversities and confrontational tendencies.
But we should be honest – an effective industrial strategy which attempts to rehabilitate modern Britain after decades of mass immigration will not be cheap.
It is impossible for Britain to be some kind of low-tax haven and put in the public investment required to boost the skills of its younger workforce. The British taxpayer will have to fund this grand project of national renewal – but at least we would be investing in our own youth in the name of domestic self-sufficiency.