A youth unemployment crisis has been fuelled by soaring immigration, shocking figures reveal. Employers have hired 27 young workers from outside the EU for every Briton taken on. And the number of people aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment and training, known as Neets, has soared to 957,000 and is forecast to rise higher.

The analysis, by think-tank the Centre for Social Justice, came as a government review was set to warn that the number of young people classed as NEET could rise to 1.25 million within five years Figures from HMRC show the ­number of non-EU or UK nationals under 25 in employment rose from 81,500 in January 2020, to 370,900 in December 2025. This is an increase of 289,400 people.

But Britons under 25 in employment only rose from 3,841,500 to 3,852,300 in the same period, up by just 10,800. Under-25s classed as Neet rose by more than 150,000 ­during this period. According to the Centre for Social Justice, “starter roles” typically taken up by young people have been vanishing, with migrants employed instead.

It called for measures to prevent young people being thrown on the scrapheap, including better training, mental health support, and ending a culture in schools that tells students to aim for university even if it will not help their job prospects.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the think-tank’s founder and former Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “It’s time to be bold or we risk losing an entire generation.”

A review by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, will warn today that entry level jobs have been in sharp decline and ­vacancies in hospitality have halved in the past four years alone.

Saturday jobs have almost vanished and apprenticeship among young ­people have fallen 35% in a decade.

But Mr Milburn pointed out that 84% of those surveyed want a job or training.

Schools, the health system and the benefits system are all playing a role in “exacerbating inactivity” among under-25s, the report found. Launching his interim findings today, Mr Milburn is expected to say: “Six in 10 have never had a job.

“Twenty years ago, it was closer to four in 10. Detachment is no longer ­temporary. For too many young ­people it is becoming permanent. We are at risk of a lost generation.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: “I commissioned this report because we cannot afford to lose a generation of young people, and I welcome Alan Milburn’s vital work which lays bare the scale of the challenge and the root causes of youth unemployment we now need to confront.”

He added: “I will work across government and with employers, charities and young people to drive real change, so more young people are earning or learning, not left behind.”