Over ½m young British people aren’t working, studying, or job-hunting

So what are they doing? Facts4EU reveals the latest official data

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

This number of economically inactive young people is 68,000 higher than the same period pre-Covid (July-Sept 2019)

In the latest official figures for July to Sept 2024, there were nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 years who were ‘Not in Employment, Education, or Training’. The international term for this is 'NEETs'.

Worse still, more than half of them (552,000) were not only not working or studying, they were not even looking for work. This latter figure for 'economically inactive' NEETs is up by 68,000 on the same three months in the pre-Covid year of 2019. The increase in NEETs overall is 146,000.

In this, Part II of our latest 'Young Britain Special' series of reports, Facts4EU.Org questions what these half-a-million young Britons are doing all day, why their numbers are growing, and why we are now doing worse than the EU.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The status of the UK’s young people (16-24), Sept 2024

1. Overview : Young NEETs and the half-a-million of them who are inactive

  • Over ½ m are neither employed, nor in education or training, nor unemployed and looking for work
  • They account for 58% of all 946,000 ‘NEETs’
  • This represents a huge pool of unused potential talent for the UK

2. Here is the official breakdown for 16-24 year-old 'NEETs'

Of the 946,000 NEETs

  • Unemployed (seeking work) : 395,000 (41.7%)
  • Economically inactive : 552,000 (58.3%)

[Source : Office for National Statistics, Nov 2024 | Labour Force Survey, seasonally-adjusted figures.]

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2025 - click to enlarge

'How the other half (a million) live'

If this group of half-a-million 16-24 year-olds are not working, and are not in education or training, and are not seeking work, then what exactly are they doing and what are they living off?

Inevitably there will be some who are able to claim disability benefit, but considering we are looking at young people it would be hoped that most are fit and able to contribute, either by learning or working. Equally there may be some who are acting as carers for relatives, but this still can't account for the large numbers so the question remains.

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What the Government told us

Facts4EU.Org contacted both the Dept for Education (DES) and the Dept of Work and Pensions (DWP). Our contacts were as helpful as they could be and they fully accepted that the issue we have raised above is a problem, “And it’s one the Government is taking very seriously.” Both departments admitted that the NEETs problem lies between the responsibilities of each.

In answer to our main question, neither of the Departments had any information on what this group of more than half-a-million young people are doing.

Last year the Work and Pensions Secretary, the Rt Hon Liz Kendall MP, talked about the new Government's ‘Back to Work Plan’, saying :

Economic inactivity is holding Britain back – it’s bad for people, it’s bad for businesses, and it’s bad for growth.

It’s not good enough that the UK is the only G7 country with employment not back to pre-pandemic levels.”

“It is time for change in every corner of the country. We’ll create more good jobs, make work pay, transform skills, and overhaul jobcentres, alongside action to tackle the root causes of worklessness [sic] including poor physical and mental health. Change delivered by local areas for local people, driving growth and delivering opportunity and prosperity to everyone, wherever they live.”

The increasingly-bad UK performance compared to the EU27 average

In the final part of this analysis we looked at how the UK compares to the EU when it comes to 'NEETs'. It should be noted that the EU tends to refer to young people as being aged 15-29 years. In order to make a true comparison, we have broken this down to approximately the same age range as is used by the UK: 16-24 in the UK's case and 15-24 in the EU's.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The UK's proportion of NEETs compared to the EU average, Sept 2024

People who were NEET as a percentage of people in the 16-24 age group

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2025 - click to enlarge
[Sources : Office for National Statistics and EU Commission statistics agency, seasonally-adjusted figures.]

It’s important to define who we are talking about

1. Young people

For the purposes of recording this data, the ONS defines young people as those aged 16-24 years.

2. Education and training

Persons are considered to be in education or training if they:

  • Are enrolled on an education course and are still attending or waiting for term to start or restart
  • Are doing an apprenticeship
  • Are on a government-supported employment or training programme
  • Are working or studying towards a qualification
  • Have had job-related training or education in the last four weeks

3. Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET)

Anybody who is not in any of the forms of education or training listed above and who is not in employment is considered to be NEET. As a result, a person identified as NEET will always be either unemployed or economically inactive. The half million above are in the latter category. In effect they are ‘inactive NEETs’, and they represent 58% of the total.

4. Economic inactivity – the missing half million

So, ‘Inactive NEETS’ are young people who are not in education or training and who are not in employment, but neither are they unemployed and seeking work - the only other major category in which it might be expected to find them. They are not classified as unemployed because they do not meet the internationally accepted definition of unemployment. To meet that definition they would have had to have been seeking work within the last four weeks and/or able to start work in the next two weeks.

Observations

Are we seeing a situation where half a million of our young people - who should surely be encouraged, helped and inspired - have simply fallen between the cracks of two government departments? Given the numbers involved, this must be worthy of a special investigation by one Government Dept, with solutions proposed as quickly as possible. This issue is about young people and it cannot wait.

‘The post-Covid culture’

In the private conversations we had within Government about our report, the effect of the Covid culture was mentioned several times as one possible cause of the increase in the number of inactive under 25s. This may yet prove to be another of the many hitherto hidden costs of the government’s Covid policies. Nevertheless there must be other reasons.

And until the Government identifies the problem, it cannot cure the disease.

COMING UP...

In the next report in this 'Young Britain Special' series of reports we turn our attention to the EU's proposed 'Youth Mobility Scheme' with the UK and ask: "Is this scheme simply 'Freedom of Movement' by another name?"

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[ Sources: Office for National Statistics, Nov 2024 data | Labour Force Survey | Department for Education | Department for Work and Pensions ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 28 Jan 2025

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