On any given day, Poppy Blackman is engaged in the “soul-crushing” process of applying for a new job, and rarely ever hearing anything back.
The 22-year-old has been unemployed since January 2025 and says she applies to an average of 50 roles a month, using one of four different CVs she has written for different types of jobs and sectors.
“I can’t be picky with what I want to apply for,” says Blackman, who lives in London. She studied fashion and art design at North Kent College but has given up on only applying within this sector.
“Not a day goes by when I don’t apply for at least a few jobs,” she says. “It does get pretty miserable after a certain amount of time, always doing the same thing, looking on the same websites, applying for similar jobs. It does get a little bit soul-crushing.”
View image in fullscreen Poppy Blackman: ‘I can’t be picky.’ Photograph: Courtesy of Poppy Blackman
Blackman’s story is an increasingly common one. Official figures show youth unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds rose to a five-year high in the final three months of 2025. Strip out the Covid spike in 2020 and youth unemployment has hit an 11-year-high.
On a wider net of 16 to 24-year-olds, youth unemployment is now higher th
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