What's happened to the UK's 1 million ‘Lost Boys’ (and Girls)?

Huge jump to almost 1 million 16-24 year-olds not in employment, education, or training (NEETs)

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

The level of the UK’s inactive youth has now reached tragic proportions, says Facts4EU.Org

While Sir Keir Starmer was in Washington yesterday there seems to have been little room for the set of shocking data showing that almost one million of the UK’s youth are sitting idle.

Yesterday’s release of the latest youth activity figures was buried under an American avalanche of what-to-expect speculation and what-they-actually-said reality, as the PM posed for the cameras in what sometimes resembled a non-stop, slow-motion movie lasting all day and all evening.

Do not look away now

The Facts4EU.Org think-tank does not normally update a report produced and published only one month ago. The new data has to be fairly extraordinary for us to do this. Such is the crisis level which has now been reached amongst our young people, we feel compelled to bring it to readers’ attention.

The chart below really does show the rapid and daunting rise in the number of the UK’s 16-24 year-olds who are ‘Not in Employment, Education, or Training’ (NEET) or in other words ‘inactive’. In short, you are seeing an explosion since 2021 of a new generation that is seemingly becoming surplus to the nation’s requirements.

In the last year, 110,000 more of the UK’s young people became inactive

Below we show three charts. The first shows the overall picture, the second shows the remarkable split between young men and young women, and the third shows the troubling split between those who are seeking work, and those who are not looking and who are not in education or training.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The young people (16-24 years old) in the United Kingdom, end-Dec 2024

1. Of the 7.4m 16-24 year-olds in the UK, almost a million (13.4%) are inactive

2023 : 877,471
2024 : 987,082 (Increase of 110,000 year-on-year, or +12.5%)

2. Of the ‘Young and Inactive’ they are 22% more likely to be young men

Young men : 542,000 (54.9%)
Young women : 445,000 (45.1%)

3. Of the ‘Young and Inactive’, 60% are NOT looking for work and NOT in education or training

Total unemployed (and looking for work): 391,885 (39.7%)
Inactive and not looking for work : 595,196 (60.3%)

The one million number question

The obvious question to ask is this: If there (almost) one million young people in the UK who are not working, not looking for work, and not in education or training, what on earth are they doing?

In an attempt to find the answer to this question, Facts4EU approached the two government departments most likely to know the answer.

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What the Government told us

In January the Facts4EU think-tank conducted another analysis on this subject and contacted both the Dept for Education (DES) and the Dept of Work and Pensions (DWP). Our contacts fully accepted that the issue we have raised above is a problem, “And it’s one the Government is taking very seriously.”

In answer to our questions, neither of the Departments had any information on what the group of almost one million of the UK’s young people are doing. Specifically they were unable to shed any light on the extraordinary number of 16-24 year-olds who are neither working, nor looking for work, nor in education or training.

Both departments admitted that the NEETs problem lies between the responsibilities of each. One spokesperson (speaking off the record so cannot be named) admitted it is possible that this group has to some extent ‘fallen through the cracks.’

Observations

Imagine the prospects for the country if an extra one million 16-24 year-olds were either in work, or in training to be productive members of society. This is a resource that is highly valuable, to say nothing of the impact of being idle on this enormous number of our young people. Evidently, there is the question of whether this is by choice or circumstances.

What is troubling is the proportion of this one million who are not in education and are not even looking for work.

The Facts4EU think-tank has published on this subject before and warned about it, yet the numbers just keep on rising. We are now getting to the stage where this should be considered to be a national emergency. If nothing else, there should be an urgent government investigation into these numbers, because if it carries on then the UK will start to resemble countries like Greece in terms of youth unemployment, but without any of the reasons behind that country's difficulties.

Whilst remaining non-partisan as an organisation, we must say that the Labour Government's hike in the minimum wage (mostly affecting the employment of young people), and the increase in employers' National Inusrance contributions, are the polar opposite of what is needed to address this dramically growing problem.

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[ Sources: Office for National Statistics | Dept for Education (DES) | Dept of Work and Pensions (DWP) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 28 Feb 2025

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Reader Comments 18

1. Have You Wondered , Friday, February 28, 2025, 08:27:

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Thinking aloud - with 7m awaiting treatment - how many are getting sickness benefit?
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Black economy?
.

2. Old Albion , Friday, February 28, 2025, 08:57:

Is it any wonder then, that so many young people end up involved in criminality or drugs. They have been abandoned by successive governments who would rather import labour, instead of training our own.

3. Sparky , Friday, February 28, 2025, 09:06:

This is just a sign of how much our economy is struggling, employers will freeze recruitment as a first step to cutting costs.
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The graph shows this increase in NEET’s started in early 2021, accelerated in late 2022 and has continued to grow. Im sure its only a coincidence that we left the EU in early 2021 and we had a Liz Truss budget in late 2022.

4. Old Albion , Friday, February 28, 2025, 10:36:

Or perhaps it's been increasing since 2004 when Blair opened up the UK to millions of EU citizens.

5. LuxuryBalloon , Friday, February 28, 2025, 10:54:

It is much better that our youngsters are inactive in the UK than being actively involved for example in Majorca’s booming tourism industry. The younger generations tended to be more remain-leaning anyway. Brexit will make the younger generations understand that they have to work harder and Brexit will toughen them up: they will thank us for that in the future.

6. Have You Wondered , Friday, February 28, 2025, 13:09:

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3 Sparky. Fag paper between the EU and UK. But bear in mind the small but probably significant difference in the EU age ranges. Via ChapGPT:
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Comparing NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) statistics between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) reveals notable differences in youth engagement trends.
.
EU NEETS
- **2021:** 13.1%
- **2022:** 11.7%
- **2023:** 11.2%
These figures represent the percentage of individuals aged 15 to 29 who are NEET in the EU.
.
**NEET Rates in the UK:**
- **2021:** Data not specified in the provided sources.
- **2022:** 11.5%
- **2023:** 12.0%
.
These percentages pertain to young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK.
.
The EU statistics cover individuals aged 15 to 29, whereas the UK's data focuses on the 16 to 24 age bracket. This variation in age ranges may influence the comparability of the data.
.
As of late 2024, reports indicate that nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are NEET, marking the highest number in over a decade. This surge has been attributed to factors such as economic challenges post-pandemic, underfunded employment support, and rising youth mental health issues.
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In summary, while the EU shows a positive trend with decreasing NEET rates, the UK faces increasing challenges in re-engaging its youth in employment, education, or training.
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So nothing to do with Brexit.
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7. LuxuryBalloon , Friday, February 28, 2025, 16:03:

6 Have You Wondered … the EU shows a positive trend since Brexit with decreasing NEET rates. The UK shows a negative trend since Brexit with increasing NEET rates.
I am not sure how you draw your conclusion ‘So it has nothing to do with Brexit’ .
Facts4EU always tells young people in many EU countries to ask themselves: “Has my country's EU membership actually helped me.
Facts4EU should tell young people in the UK to ask themselves: “Has Brexit actually helped me?”

8. Sparky , Friday, February 28, 2025, 18:35:

6 HYW. In addition to LB’s summary of your figures, the EU age range covers an additional 6 years compared to UK.
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Also worth remembering that the 16 to 24 age range were too young to vote in the ref: and have seen the chaos, lies and stagnation that followed the ref:.

9. The Brexit Facts4EU.Org Team , Friday, February 28, 2025, 19:04:

Please do not use AI to inform your comments. It is subject to some appalling errors. We have direct experience after testing the most popular version.
We have previously done the hard work in comparing the EU's figures, which go up to the age of 29. A huge amount of detailed work, but we showed the EU's figures against the UK's by adding up the individual data on each year of age. https://facts4eu.org/static...

10. NH , Friday, February 28, 2025, 19:40:

According to the ONS latest survey (Feb 2025) 16% of businesses with 10+ employees report having worker shortages. This suggests the problem is national governance rather than an economic problem.
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Comparing youth employment with the EU is highly misleading because youth employment in the EU is very heavily subsidised. This started in late 2012 with the "youth guarantee scheme" which was eventually rolled into the SURE Scheme and is now part of the European Social Fund+ which is mutually funded with a present annual budget of 8.9 Billion euros. In Germany failing companies are also subsidised to retain workers on a part time basis. This may, or may not, be a good thing but it certainly flatters Germany's employment figures.
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When Mario Draghi was the president of the ECB he stated that the EU's youth unemployment figures did not tell the full story. He stated that Euro Area "Broad Youth Unemployment", which excludes temporary work etc was in excess of 30%. This compared with 12% in the UK and 9% in the USA for the same period.

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