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Unemployment among young people in the UK is hitting sales growth and profits at JD Sports, the owner of the trainer and sportwear chain has said, amid warnings about the high number of under-25s not in work, education or training.

The UK was the worst performing market for JD Group, which also owns Blacks, Go Outdoors and a number of US and European sports chains.

Régis Schultz, the chief executive, said JD was experiencing “pressures on our core customer demographic, including rising unemployment levels, as well as near-term volatility around consumer sentiment”.

His comments came as official figures on Thursday showed the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) remains stubbornly close to the highest level in a decade.

graph of number of 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK who are categorised as Neet

Despite a modest decline in the three months to September to 946,000, down from 948,000 in the previous quarter, campaigners said the figures from the Office for National Statistics showed Britain was at risk of failing a whole generation of young people.

The figures mean one in eight young people are Neet amid a rapid increase in unemployment more broadly, with the official jobless rate at 5%, the highest level since the Covid pandemic. Last week the Guardian revealed that almost half of all jobs shed since Labour came to power were among the under-25s.

Barry Fletcher, the chief executive of the Youth Futures Foundation, said: “This is a long-term problem that continues to negatively shape the lives of too many across the country.”

The squeeze on spare cash for young people contributed to a 3.3% slide in sales at established JD Group stores in the three months to 1 November. Sales were also down in the US and EU – by 1.7% and 1.1% respectively – amid similar pressures as well as a lack of new product launches to draw in shoppers and the slowdown in the trend for women’s vintage trainers.

The company has also suffered from a heavy reliance on Nike, which has been struggling to spur consumer interest recently with critics pointing to a lack of new ideas.

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JD said annual profits would now be at the lower end of expectations – at about £853m – and well below a once hoped for £1bn. It said it was “taking a pragmatic approach” to its outlook for this financial year, due to “incrementally weaker macro and consumer indicators in recent weeks”.

Aarin Chiekrie, an equity analyst at the broker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Trading across the UK remains particularly weak, with recent changes to employer taxes and minimum wages bringing a handful of extra costs and challenges.”

The weak numbers came as another youth brand, Dr Martens, said consumers were “cautious right now” and “looking for deals” right across Europe and in the US. The British bootmaker said it was putting prices up on some items in the US in January to offset the impact of Trump’s import tariffs, which it said amounted to between £7m and £9m.

Tietoevry Corporation     INSIDE INFORMATION     20 November 2025 6:00 p.m. EET

 

Tietoevry’s cost optimization programme, targeting EUR 115 million in run-rate savings by the end of 2026, is progressing well. The contribution to operating profit in 2025 is higher than anticipated and consequently, the company upgrades its profitability outlook for the full year. As the year is approaching its end, the company also narrows down growth outlook.

 

Revised outlook for 2025:

Tietoevry expects its organic1) growth to be in the range of -2% to -1% (revenue in 2024: EUR 1 879.5 million). The company estimates its full-year adjusted operating margin2) (adjusted EBITA3)) to be 13.3–13.8% (12.0% in 2024).

 

The profitability outlook includes a negative impact of approximately 1.0 percentage points on the adjusted operating margin (EBITA) related to IFRS 5 for Tech Services divestment. The impact comprises the costs that the company was not able to allocate to discontinued operations until the divestment closing on 2 September, and transition services income after that date.

 

Previous outlook for 2025:

Tietoevry expects its organic1) growth to be in the range of -2% to 0% (revenue in 2024: EUR 1 879.5 million). The company estimates its full-year adjusted operating margin2) (adjusted EBITA3)) to be 12.7-13.3% (12.0% in 2024).

 

The profitability outlook includes a negative impact of approximately 1.1 percentage points on the adjusted operating margin (EBITA) related to IFRS 5 for Tech Services divestment. The impact comprises the costs that the company was not able to allocate to discontinued operations until the divestment closing on 2 September, and transition services income after that date.

 

1) Adjusted for currency effects, acquisitions and divestments.

2) Adjustment items include restructuring costs, capital gains/losses, impairment charges and other items affecting comparability.

3) Profit before interests, taxes and amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets

 

For further information, please contact
Tommi Järvenpää, Head of Investor Relations, tel. +358 40 576 0288, tommi.jarvenpaa (at) tietoevry.com

 

 

TIETOEVRY CORPORATION

 

DISTRIBUTION

NASDAQ Helsinki

NASDAQ Stockholm

Oslo Børs

Principal Media

 

Tietoevry is a leading software and digital engineering services company with global market reach and capabilities. We provide customers across different industries with mission-critical solutions through our specialized software businesses Tietoevry Care, Tietoevry Banking and Tietoevry Industry, as well as our digital engineering business Tietoevry Create. Our around 15 000 talented vertical software, design, cloud and AI experts are dedicated to empowering our customers to succeed and innovate with latest technology.

 

Tietoevry’s annual revenue is approximately EUR 2 billion. The company’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ exchange in Helsinki and Stockholm, as well as on Oslo Børs. www.tietoevry.com