The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the latest data on young people not in employment, education or training (NEET), covering the quarter from April – June 2021.
Background to the data
This data covers the quarter April to June 2021.
This dataset includes those who are in any form of part-time education or training and so the number of young people who are NEET is slightly lower than estimates from the monthly ONS Labour Market Overview which only includes those in full-time education or training.
Unemployment means a person is looking for work and is able to start work. Economically inactive means a person is not looking for work and is unable to start work.
The headlines
- 631,292 young are NEET, a decrease of 104,000 compared with the previous quarter and down 144,000 on the year. This is a record low.
- The changes are driven by a general decrease in the total number of young people and a large increase in the number of 18-24 year olds participating in full-time education.
- The percentage of all young people who are NEET is estimated at 9.3%, this is also record low; the proportion was up by 1.5 percentage points (ppts) on the previous quarter and down by 1.8 ppts compared to pre-pandemic figures (Oct-Dec 2019).
- There were an estimated 280,000 unemployed young people who are NEET, (another record low), down 42,000 from the previous quarter and down 25,000 on the year.
- In April to June 2021, there were an estimated 351,000 economically inactive young people who are NEET, which was another record low. This was down 62,000 from January to March 2021 and down 119,000 compared with April to June 2020.
Graph 1 – The percentage of young people who were NEET between August 2011 – August 2021. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.
Graph 2 – The number of young people who were NEET, by employment status. between August 2002 – August 2021. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.
NEET data by age
53,819 young people aged 16-17 year are NEET:
- 14,920 are unemployed,
38,899 are economically inactive, - 16-17 year olds account for 8.5% of the total number of NEETs,
- 9.3% of all 16-17 year olds are NEET.
577,473 young people aged 18-24 year are NEET:
- 265,177 are unemployed,
- 312,295 are economically inactive,
- 18-24 year olds account for 91.5% of the total number of NEETs,
- 10.8% of all 18-24 year olds are NEET. This is a record low, down 2 ppts on the quarter.
NEET data by sex
341,205, or 9.8% of all 16-24 year old men, are NEET:
- 168,531 are unemployed,
- 172,673 are economically inactive,
- 3.6% of all 16-17 year old males are NEET,
- 11.5% of all 18-24 year old males are NEET.
290,086, or 8.7% of all 16-24 year old women, are NEET:
- 111,565 are unemployed,
- 178,520 are economically inactive,
- 3.8% of all 16-17 year old females are NEET,
- 10.1% of all 18-24 year olds females are NEET.
Our Commentary
The data is encouraging, building on the ONS Labour Market Overview for August, we continue to see signs of recovery. The number of NEET young people has been falling since it’s peak following the previous recession (2008-2012).
The large fall seen in this data release can be attributed mainly to the rapid rise of young people choosing to stay in education as they wait out a labour market recovery. We see that almost 300,000 young people are looking for work and it is likely that some of those young people were captured in the long term unemployment figure captured in the linked release above.
Quality opportunities to work, train and study
The last 18 months+ has impacted young people, their choices and their thoughts on the future. We must continue to push for quality education, training and employment opportunities for young people. We are pleased to use our co-chairing role within the Youth Employment Group, the APPG for Youth Employment and wider work with our partners to ensure no young person is left behind.
