It's great to have a US-style summer jobs scheme but it lacks scale and ambition

I started work, aged 14, paid £3 an hour in today's money, for Saturday mornings in a shop. At 16, I worked a full day, as did most of my friends. We also worked every summer. This was normal in the 1980s.

- Tim Leunig

My family was poor, so working allowed me to save for the things I wanted. That is a good lesson for life. It taught me different forms of self-discipline and better social skills. Those are also good lessons.

Both Saturday work and summer jobs are dying out. June 2025 saw the fewest postings in the UK for that month in seven years, according to data from hiring platform Indeed.

Things are different in the US, where 90% of the top 30 cities run a summer jobs programme, targeting young people aged 14-24 - and City Hall pays the wages. These programmes are not new - New York's started in 1963. Even with 100,000 places a year, and paying just £6 an hour, the city's programme has two applicants for each place.