The record drop in UK employment could spell disaster for the graduate job market, unless action is taken

Editorial: It won’t be easy, but tackling the toughest challenges in education and work will dramatically improve outcomes for the economy as a whole

The employment figures showing the fastest decline in jobs for a decade are an obvious and troubling measure of the economic blow that many people currently face. Sadly, the numbers will get even worse as the various job support schemes end – and that will be a very difficult time for many people.

However, the hardest blow of all will come to young people – school leavers and university graduates – who have yet to move into their first jobs.

This is monstrously unfair. We cannot choose the moment when we are born, when we start and leave school, and for those of us who are going or have gone to university, when we graduate. But we know that people who start their working life during a recession will long suffer disadvantages.