The chief executive of Next has sounded a dire alarm over the erosion of entry-level employment, warning that the UK faces a ‘dramatic’ shrinkage in roles traditionally occupied by young workers. Lord Wolfson’s remarks, delivered during the retailer’s full-year results briefing, have intensified concerns over structural unemployment as automation and shifting consumer habits reshape the labour market.
Wolfson, who has led the fashion chain for over two decades, did not mince words: “The number of entry-level jobs in retail, hospitality, and administration is collapsing. This is not a cyclical dip. This is a structural shift.” He attributed the trend to three converging forces: the acceleration of AI-powered checkout systems, the permanent adoption of warehouse robotics, and the post-pandemic pivot to online operations that require fewer bodies on the shop floor.
Next itself has reduced its workforce in distribution centres by 12% since 2019, even as revenues grew by 18%. The company now relies heavily on algorithmic demand forecasting and automated sorting systems. “A decade ago, a new store opening meant 50 jobs for school leavers. Today, a new fulfilment centre might create 10 roles, all requiring coding skills,” Wolfson explained.
Economists are listening. The Office for National Statistics reported last week that the number of 16-to-24-year-olds not in education, employment, or training (NEET) has risen to 872,000, the highest since 2015. That figure is expected to worsen as sectors like banking and insurance follow retail’s lead. Barclays recently announced a 40% reduction in junior analyst hires, citing AI tools that can process loan applications in seconds.
The government’s response has been tepid. The Chancellor’s Spring Budget allocated only £200 million for retraining programmes, a sum critics call woefully inadequate. Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds accused ministers of “sleepwalking into a youth unemployment crisis” and demanded a “digital skills guarantee” for every school leaver.
But Wolfson’s warning goes beyond policy: it is a mirror held up to a society that has yet to reconcile its love for frictionless convenience with the human cost. The very technologies we celebrate for efficiency the self-checkout, the chatbot, the robo-advisor are erasing the first rungs of the career ladder. For millions of young people, the path from education to stable employment is no longer a staircase but a cliff.
What solutions exist? Wolfson advocates for a radical rethinking of the school-to-work transition: “We need apprenticeships that are not just for trades but for data analytics, for AI supervision, for green technology. The old model of learning on the job in a shop or an office is dying. We must create new entry points.”
Yet even these roles demand a baseline digital fluency that many schools still fail to provide. The Education Endowment Foundation reports that 34% of UK secondary schools lack a dedicated computer science teacher. Meanwhile, the government’s planned digital curriculum for 14-to-16-year-olds has been delayed until 2026.
The irony is not lost on Wolfson, who admits his own company’s success depends on the very software that displaces workers. “I cannot pretend Next is innocent,” he said. “But we also cannot pretend this is sustainable. A society where young people have no path to earning and learning is a society that will tear itself apart.”
As the FTSE 100 CEO spoke, the stock market barely blinked. Next shares rose 1.2%. The disconnect between financial markets and social reality has rarely felt starker. For the thousands of teenagers who will leave school this summer to find a job market stripped of its traditional scaffolding, Wolfson’s words are not a warning. They are a eulogy.
