As the economy narrowly avoids a recession, and job vacancies fall, today’s (23rd February) ONS statistics reveal an alarming rise in young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).
The number of young people who are NEET has risen to 788,000, which is a 13% increase in one year. This is troubling as the NEET level hasn’t been this high since December 2020.
Within this group, 62% are inactive (not in work and not looking/unable to work) and 38% are unemployed (not in work and looking to work).
It is particularly worrying that these young people who are not in full-time education are increasingly further from the labour market. This is causing a significant gap amongst young people, between those in education and those out of education.
