Young people not in education, employment or training NEET UK - November 2024

21st November 2024

Increased volatility of Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates, resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes, means that estimates of change should be treated with caution. We recommend using them alongside our labour market indicators Workforce Jobs (WFJ), Claimant Count data, and Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) estimates.

The longer-term broad coherence between WFJ and RTI, when looking at annual change, suggests that these sources are likely to provide a more reliable estimate of employment, particularly for employees; these sources continue to indicate that we have seen a sustained moderation of growth in employment over the last year.

It is also likely that some of the recent movements in LFS estimates are being affected by the increased sample size and change in data collection methods taken over the last year, in addition to any underlying changes in the labour market.

LFS estimates have been weighted to population estimates published in November 2023 for periods from July to September 2022; headline UK seasonally adjusted series before this have been modelled, but other series have a discontinuity at this point.

There was an increase in the number of young people aged 16 to 24 years not in education, employment or training (NEET) in July to September 2024, with the total currently estimated to be 946,000, up from July to September 2023.

Total young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET)
An estimated 13.2% of all people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in July to September 2024. This is an increase compared with July to September 2023, and up on the previous quarter.

An estimated 15.1% of young men (up on the year) and 11.2% of young women (down on the year) were NEET. There were 946,000 young people who were NEET in total, an increase on the year. This increase was caused by young men. Of the total number of young people who were NEET, 550,000 were young men and 397,000 were young women.

The total number of people aged 18 to 24 years who were NEET was 869,000, up on the previous year. The percentage of those aged 18 to 24 years who were NEET was 15.6%, which was up on the year and up on the quarter.

Unemployed young people who were not in education, employment or training
There were an estimated 395,000 NEET young people aged 16 to 24 years who were unemployed in July to September 2024, up from July to September 2023 and up from April to June 2024.

An estimated 260,000 of these unemployed NEETS were young men, and 134,000 were young women. Both the numbers of NEET men and women aged 16 to 24 years who were unemployed increased on the year.

Economically inactive young people who were not in education, employment or training
In July to September 2024, there were an estimated 552,000 economically inactive young people aged 16 to 24 years who were NEET. This was down on the year from July to September 2023, but up on the quarter from April to June 2024.

The number of young men who were NEET and economically inactive was 289,000 and the corresponding number of young women was 262,000. The total decrease on the year was caused by young women, who saw a decrease on the year from July to September 2023. Young men aged 16 to 24 years who were NEET and economically inactive increased on the year.

Read the full ONS report HERE