Level of Neet young people hits three-year high

Figures just published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that during the period between July and September this year there were 800,000 young people in the UK aged between 16 and 24 classed as Neet.

The ONS said this was the highest number since October to December 2016, but still well below the peak of 1.2 million in the latter half of 2011.

It added that the most recent figures were 43,000 more than July to September 2018, the largest annual quarterly increase since January to March 2012.

The figures show that the percentage of all 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK who were Neet in July to September this year was 11.6 per cent - up 0.7 percentage points on the same period last year and 0.1 percentage points higher than April to June this year.

• Participation in Action: Neet young people take eight steps towards a brighter future
• Character development scheme targets those at Neet risk

The ONS said that of all young people who were Neet in July to September, 39.6 per cent (317,000) were looking for and available for work. This meant they were classified as unemployed. The remainder were either not looking for work or were not available for work and were classified as “economically inactive”.

Of the 317,000 people categorised as unemployed, 212,000 were male and 105,000 female - the lowest number for women since records began in 2001.

Sharon Davies, chief executive of Young Enterprise, a charity that helps school-aged children access employability education, branded the latest rise in Neet figures as “disappointing”.

“Many young people find themselves in this position because they don’t have equal access to the right resources and skills,” she said.

“Teaching financial, entrepreneurial and life skills is crucial for preparing our young people to succeed in the working world, and we therefore urge the next government, schools and parents to focus on the development of these important skills from an early age to guide young people in the right direction.”

As part of its manifesto for next month's general election, published yesterday, Labour has said it intends to provide free training for school leavers.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers has long called for more to be done to meet the needs of the “forgotten 50 per cent of school leavers with few or no qualifications”.

Chief executive of the AELP Mark Dawe welcomed Labours’ plans to offer free training up to level 3 for school leavers.

He said: “Government, employers and education and training providers should be working together in going into schools to make pupils of all abilities more aware of the vocational options that are available to them when too many successful and high earning apprentices still tell us that that they never heard about apprenticeships at school.”

Laura-Jane Rawlings from Youth Unemployment UK said: “We should all be concerned that the number of young people Neet has been slowly rising, at a time when employment levels are high this trend is bucking the system which is a real worry. 

“Even since before the peak levels of youth unemployment, young people as a group are three times more likely to be unemployed than any other age group, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds even more so. 

"Youth unemployment is complex, its reasons are both structural and social and there has never been a silver bullet. But young people should not bear the brunt of it being "too difficult a problem to solve". 

“That is why in our Manifesto for Youth Employment we had some ambitious calls for the next government and recently launched our campaign to call on more organisations to become Youth Friendly and to ensure that UK Businesses are creating the best opportunities for young people to be able to fulfil their potential.”