While he said lockdowns were a clear factor, he suggested social media and technology played an even bigger role.
Mr Stride said: “I do think probably as a society we haven’t explored and fully opened up exactly what this technology means for young people’s mental health because I think the impacts are actually very profound and probably an area where there needs to be more research.”
The new ONS figures showed that young men were behind the continued rise in worklessness. There were 99,000 extra 16-to-24 year old men out of work by the end of March, whereas the number of women of the same age classed as NEET fell by 11,000.
Around one in seven young men are now considered NEET, according to the ONS, compared to one in ten young women.
Britain is grappling with one of the worst sickness crises on record, with more than 2.8m people of working age not in the workforce due to ill health, including mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. This is up from around 2m before Covid.
There are 9.4 million people of working age overall who are neither in work nor looking for a job in the UK, representing a decade high.
Mr Stride has unveiled a series of reforms to tackle Britain’s worklessness crisis, including an overhaul of Britain’s benefits system, warning that the approach to mental health and welfare is in danger of having “gone too far”.