Social Mobility Day 2026
June 11, 2026Posted by:
Social mobility is a business concern, not just a social one
UK entry-level job postings have fallen by around 30% since AI tools began absorbing the routine work those jobs were built on. That rung, the first job where someone learns by doing and is trusted before they have proved themselves, is the one now most at risk. At PeoplePlus, we see what that costs, because we work in the gap between people looking for a way in and the employers who can offer one.
A story that stands in for many
Someone comes to us after a long stretch out of work. The ability is there and so is the willingness, but the CV has a gap that every automated sift reads as a reason to stop. What they have never had is the person on the other side of the door prepared to take a chance. An employer in our network does exactly that. They offer a route in that does not hinge on a flawless history, and pair the new starter with someone to back them through the first months. A year later, that person is helping train the next one.
The theme of this year's Social Mobility Day is that stories matter. From where we sit, that is not a slogan. Stories like this are the evidence, and they are getting harder to come by. The places where those first chances used to happen are narrowing. Graduate roles are at their weakest since 2018, and the older barriers have not moved either, with the Sutton Trust finding the country's most influential people still five times more likely to have been privately educated than the rest of us. A new obstacle is forming on top of the ones that were always there.
What social mobility really is
It is easy to talk about social mobility in the abstract, as indices and reports. Up close it is simpler. It is the business of getting from here to there when you do not have the network, the status, the wealth or the patron to smooth the way. The people we work with are rarely short of ambition. What they lack is the door, and someone on the other side willing to open it.
None of that is fixed by good intentions alone. The practical work is unglamorous: opening routes into work that do not depend on a degree or a faultless CV, looking past the gap in someone's history to the person in front of you, and pairing them with someone who will back them while they find their feet. That last part matters most. It is the patron that privilege hands the few by accident, built in on purpose for everyone else.
Why SRAG, and why now
Making more of those moments happen is why PeoplePlus convenes the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group, now more than 150 employers learning from each other rather than working alone. It is where the evidence and the experience meet. At its December summit, the Social Mobility Commission's Deputy Chair Rob Wilson set out the case that the country will not improve social mobility without improving growth, and the group heard from people with lived experience, among them Jo Whight, on what it takes to back someone the system has overlooked. That combination, the research and the lived reality, is what turns one story into many.
The proof is in the doing. Through the Social Recruitment Framework, this work has already helped more than 13,000 people into jobs with over 200 employers, alongside the employability programmes, carer support and prison education we deliver every day. The Social Recruitment Covenant gives employers a way to make the commitment public and be held to it.
It helps to be clear about what success looks like, because this is not charity. At RGIS, a SRAG member now at Silver Charter Mark level, where much of the leadership team started in entry-level roles, the UK managing director recently shared, "I'm sure the next UK MD is already working for RGIS." Give people a way in and a reason to stay, and some of them end up running the place. That is social mobility working as a business model, not a cause.
Chances made on purpose
Technology is changing how people get into work, and fast. What it has not changed is the truth beneath it, that getting from here to there still depends on someone taking a chance on a person with no network to make it easy. If the space for those chances is shrinking, they have to be made on purpose. That is the story worth being able to tell by this time next year. If you would like to help write it, talk to the team at [email protected].
Sources
Entry-level postings down around 30% since ChatGPT launched (Adzuna UK Job Market Report, June 2025): https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/30/uk-entry-level-jobs-chatgpt-launch-adzuna
Graduate roles at their weakest since 2018 (Indeed, June 2025): https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jun/25/uk-university-graduates-toughest-job-market-rise-of-ai
Most influential people five times more likely to have attended private school (Sutton Trust, Elitist Britain 2025): https://www.suttontrust.com/our-research/elitist-britain-2025/
Growth and social mobility as one problem (Social Mobility Commission, Innovation, investment and inclusion, 2025): https://socialmobility.independent-commission.uk/publication/innovation-investment-and-inclusion-a-framework-for-regional-renewal/
June 11, 2026Posted by:
