Jobless Banquet: Youth unemployment surge ‘sends Neets to KFC’
A surge in youth unemployment has fuelled the rise of chicken shops across British high streets as young people not in work, education or training – known as Neets – have flocked to fast food, a consultancy has argued.
Analysts at Baringa, a consultancy with more than 2,000 employees, have drawn a link between the wide emergence of chicken shops and rise in young people not in employment, education or training (Neets), referring to the phenomenon as the “Chicken Wing Economy”.
Retail consultants argued that the rise in joblessness had led young people to turn to cheaper options and eat at KFC, Popeyes or trendy spots such as Morley’s and Wingstop.
Data analysed by Baringa suggested that the annual rise in fast food restaurants has outstripped growth in traditional sit-down restaurants by around five times between 2018 and 2025.
This comes as the youth unemployment rate has spiked from a low of 10.9 per cent in 2017 to 16.2 per cent – a number not far off that of Greece – according the latest set of data published by the Office for National Statistics. The number of Neets is estimated at over a million.
“Chicken shops have become closely associated with Gen Z, encouraged by chicken-themed online influencers and social media content such as Amelia Dimoldenberg’s ‘Chicken Shop Date’ or the American import ‘Hot Ones’,” Paddy Winters, partner in consumer products and retail at Baringa, said.
“With the recent expansion of US brands, such as Popeyes and Chick-fil-A, into the UK market, the ‘Chicken Wing Economy’ seems set to stay on Britain’s high streets.”
He added that young people’s spending on fast-food would far outpace spending on high street restaurants over the coming years.
Left wing government boosts chicken market?
Modelling by the consultancy has suggested that the UK’s fast-food chicken market was set to be worth over £5bn by 2029. The consultancy Mintel said in 2022 that the chicken outlet market was worth about £2.3bn.
Economists have widely attributed a rise in youth unemployment to the Labour government’s decision to raise taxes on businesses by over £25bn via a hike in employers’ national insurance contributions. A rise in the national minimum wage and workers’ rights red tape has also added to pressures on firms.
The ONS said on Tuesday that higher costs across firms had prevented a bounce back in jobs for Britons across the country.
Economists refer to fast food and other cheaper options as “inferior goods”. It means that such products can see demand increase when consumer incomes decrease, which is unique to most other goods like restaurant meals or new cars.
Chicken shop rule the roost amid unemployment crisis
Other food industry heavyweights have recently announced plans to take flight to the chicken shop market amid the ongoing Neets crisis.
The former boss of Domino’s Pizza ruffled feathers when he announced that the company would expand into fried chicken due to changing diets.
After his replacement, the company’s new chief executive Nicola Frampton said Domino’s chicken sales had boosted revenue over the summer.
Earlier this month, it was also revealed that Wingstop had enjoyed a bumper 73 per cent uplift in revenue to £216m last year as it unveiled its 100th location in the UK.
American giants have also flocked to the UK. Slim Chickens, founded in Arkansas in 2003, entered the UK in 2020 and has laid out plans to expand its presence to at least 50 sites. Popeyes, which launched in Britain only five years ago, already operates about 100 venues in the UK and is aiming for 350.