Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET): May 2015

• There were 943,000 young people (aged from 16 to 24) in the UK who were Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), a decrease of 20,000 from October to December 2014 and down 45,000 from a year earlier

• The percentage of all young people in the UK who were NEET was 13.0%, down 0.3 percentage points from October to December 2014 and down 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier

• Just under half (46%) of all young people in the UK who were NEET were looking for work and available for work and therefore classified as unemployed. The remainder were either not looking for work and/or not available for work and therefore classified as economically inactive

This Statistical Bulletin contains estimates for Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) in the UK. An article providing background information (88.7 Kb Pdf) is available on the ONS website. The Bulletin is published four times a year in February, May, August and November. All estimates discussed in this Statistical Bulletin are for the United Kingdom and are seasonally adjusted. The figures discussed in this Statistical Bulletin are obtained from the Labour Force Survey (a survey of households) and are therefore estimates, not precise figures.

This Statistical Bulletin is accompanied by a data table in spreadsheet format. (403 Kb Excel sheet)

Young people

For this release, young people are defined as those aged 16 to 24. Estimates are also produced for the age groups 16 to 17 and 18 to 24 and broken down by gender.

Education and training

A person is considered to be in education or training if any of the following apply:

• they are enrolled on an education course and are still attending or waiting for term to (re)start

• they are doing an apprenticeship

• they are on a government supported employment or training programme

• they are working or studying towards a qualification

• they have had job-related training or education in the last 4 weeks

Employment

“In employment” includes all people in some form of paid work, including those working part-time. People not in employment are classed as either unemployed or economically inactive. Unemployed people are those who have been looking for work in the past 4 weeks and who are available to start work within the next 2 weeks. Economically inactive people are those who have not been looking for work and/or who are not available to start work. Examples of economically inactive people include those not looking for work because they are students and those who are looking after dependants at home. These definitions are based on those recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

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. Consequently, a person identified as NEET will always be either unemployed or economically inactive.

Relationship to other labour market statistics for young people

The ONS monthly labour market statistical bulletin includes the reference table A06 (2.57 Mb Excel sheet) “Educational status, economic activity and inactivity of young people”. The NEET statistics and the Table A06 statistics are both derived from the Labour Force Survey and use the same labour market statuses; however the educational statuses are derived differently. For Table A06 the educational status is based on participation in full-time education only. For NEET statistics the educational status is based on any form of education or training, as listed previously. Therefore, the Table A06 category “not in full-time education” includes some people who are in part-time education and/or some form of training and who, consequently, should not be regarded as NEET.

For January to March 2015, there were 943,000 young people (aged from 16 to 24) who were Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), down 20,000 from October to December 2014 and down 45,000 from a year earlier. For January to March 2015, 13.0% of all people aged from 16 to 24 were NEET, down 0.3 percentage points from October to December 2014 and down 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier. Chart 1 shows the percentage of people aged from 16 to 24 who were NEET over the last five years.

For January to March 2015, there were 53,000 people aged from 16 to 17 who were Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), down 5,000 from October to December 2014 and down 3,000 from a year earlier. There were 889,000 people aged from 18 to 24 who were NEET, down 15,000 from October to December 2014 and down 42,000 from a year earlier.

Unemployment measures people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks. For January to March 2015, there were 433,000 unemployed young people (aged from 16 to 24) who were Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), down 18,000 from October to December 2014 and down 78,000 from a year earlier. For January to March 2015:

• there were 258,000 unemployed men aged from 16 to 24 who were NEET

• there were 175,000 unemployed women aged from 16 to 24 who were NEET

Economic inactivity measures people not in employment who have not been seeking work within the last four weeks and/or are not available to start work within the next two weeks. For January to March 2015, there were 510,000 economically inactive young people (aged from 16 to 24) who were Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), down 3,000 from October to December 2014 and up 33,000 from a year earlier. For January to March 2015:

• there were 162,000 economically inactive men aged from 16 to 24 who were NEET

• there were 348,000 economically inactive women aged from 16 to 24 who were NEET