Prosecco pratfalls and coffee catastrophes: Neets are missing out on formative first-job experiences | Isabel Brooks - kaiyun

Work in the hospitality industry made me who I am. Without it, young people are denied not only an income and a step on the career ladder, but important life skills

Everyone remembers their first job. More often than not, it’s in the service industry. I started at 14, pouring drinks, serving food and standing with an ice-cream tray. This is where I learned how to handle mistakes,such as dropping an entire tray of prosecco glasses, or spraying hot coffee all over a bridesmaid because I plunged the cafetiere with too much gusto. I learned how to talk to angry strangers, and what it means to have a bad manager. I learned that the customer is always right, except when you’re talking to chefs, who will throw ham at your head if you tell them that. All in all, I did 10 years of restaurant, bar, pub and cafe work, from the age of 14 to 24, and I largely attribute the formation of my character to that decade of work.

But this kind of character-building experience is under threat. Job postings for temporary work in hospitality in the UK were down by 25% year-on-year between 2024 and 2025, with 22,369 fewer unique postings. Hospitality leaders have blamed rising wage and tax costs for their inability to hire new starters, and young people are bearing the brunt: nearly 1 million young people are not in education, employment or training (Neet), despite 84% of these seeking work. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation has explicitly warned that the industry relies heavily on 16- to 24-year-olds, so the impact will be on teenagers seeking their first job. In Manchester, Nell’s Pizza advertised 10 part-time roles for people between the ages of 14 and 18, and received about 2,000 applications.

Isabel Brooks is a freelance writer

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