Young People Not In Education, Employment Or Training NEET UK August 2024

22nd August 2024

Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates have been weighted to population estimates published in November 2023 for periods from July to September 2022; a discontinuity has been introduced at this point, so comparisons before this point are not possible.
Increased volatility of LFS estimates, resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes, means that estimates of quarterly change should be treated with additional caution.
There was an increase in the number of young people aged 16 to 24 years not in education, employment or training (NEET) in April to June 2024, with the total currently estimated to be 872,000, up from 798,000 in April to June 2023.
The percentage of all young people who were NEET in April to June 2024 was estimated at 12.2%, up 0.9 percentage points on the year.

The increase in the number of young people who were NEET was driven by young men, who saw an increase of 69,000 on the year to 493,000.

The number of young people who were NEET and unemployed in April to June 2024 was estimated to be 332,000, a decrease of 1,000 on the year.

The number of young men aged 16 to 24 years who were NEET and unemployed decreased by 24,000 on the year to 213,000.
There were an estimated 540,000 young people in the UK who were NEET and economically inactive, an increase on the year of 75,000.

Total young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET)
An estimated 12.2% of all people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in April to June 2024. This is up 0.9 percentage points compared with April to June 2023, and down 0.4 percentage points on the previous quarter.

An estimated 13.5% of young men (up 1.7 percentage points on the year) and 10.8% of young women (largely unchanged on the year) were NEET. There were 872,000 young people who were NEET in total, an increase of 74,000 on the year. This increase was driven by young men. Of the total number of young people who were NEET, 493,000 were young men and 379,000 were young women.

The total number of people aged 18 to 24 years who were NEET was 807,000, up 65,000 on the previous year.

The percentage of those aged 18 to 24 years who were NEET was 14.5%, which was up 1.1 percentage points on the year, and down 0.4 percentage points on the quarter.

Unemployed young people who were not in education, employment or training
There were an estimated 332,000 NEET young people aged 16 to 24 years who were unemployed in April to June 2024, down 1,000 from April to June 2023 and up 13,000 from January to March 2024. An estimated 213,000 of these unemployed NEETS were young men, and 120,000 were young women. The number of NEET men aged 16 to 24 years who were unemployed decreased by 24,000 on the year from April to June 2023, while the number of NEET women aged 16 to 24 years who were unemployed increased by 23,000 on the year.

Economically inactive young people who were not in education, employment or training
In April to June 2024, there were an estimated 540,000 economically inactive young people aged 16 to 24 years who were NEET. This was up 75,000 on the year from April to June 2023, and down 40,000 on the quarter from January to March 2024. The number of young men who were NEET and economically inactive was 280,000 and the corresponding number of young women was 260,000. The total increase of 75,000 on the year was driven by young men, who saw an increase of 93,000 on the year from April to June 2023, while young women aged 16 to 24 years who were NEET and economically inactive decreased by 18,000 on the year.

Subnational not in education, employment or training (NEET) estimates
Subnational estimates for people not in education, employment or training are not published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), but can be accessed through the links in Section 6: Related links.

Read the full ONS report HERE

See Skills Development Scotland For Scottish NEET Stats