The number of young people NEET figures UK-wide now stands at 981,000, with new data showing nearly one in eight people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training, as a long-awaited government-commissioned report prepares to set out recommendations for tackling the crisis.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the figures for the period between April and June. While the total has edged down from over one million in the first three months of the year, it has risen by 3% compared with the same period last year, when 951,000 young people were classed as Neet. The ONS cautions that because Neets represent a smaller subset of the population, there is more variability in quarterly estimates, and that longer-term trends are the more reliable guide.
Who is most affected by the young people NEET figures?
The data makes clear that the problem falls heaviest on specific groups. According to the UK Government’s interim report on young people and work, in 2024/25 29.6% of disabled young people were Neet, compared with 8.7% of their non-disabled peers, a gap of 20.9 percentage points. The same report found that in 2024, Black, African and Caribbean young people had the highest Neet rates of all ethnic groups captured in large-scale national surveys, at 15.2%.
The picture on disability has worsened considerably over time. Analysis by Youth Employment UK of the Milburn review’s diagnostic findings shows the rate of Neet young people with a disability rose from 21% in 2013/14 to 45% in 2024/25, a near doubling over little more than a decade. Poor health has grown as a driver of young people falling out of education and work altogether.
The gender split in the latest figures also stands out. The rise between April and June compared with the same period last year was largely concentrated among men, with an estimated 25,000 more young men classed as Neet, against another 4,000 young women. The first part of former minister Alan Milburn’s report, commissioned by the government and published in May, said the reasons for the rise among men were ‘complex’, but could be linked to more health issues, the ‘erosion of traditional employment routes’ and ‘a growing gap in educational outcomes’.
The final Milburn report and government response
The second and final instalment of Milburn’s report, which is expected in the coming weeks, will set out recommendations for how to tackle the problem. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told the BBC he was ‘looking forward’ to those recommendations. ‘We’ll have proposals, legislation, if necessary, to take those forward,’ he said.
McFadden spoke during a visit to Boots in Nottingham, where young people had started jobs through a pilot of the government’s Jobs Guarantee scheme. Over the next three years, the scheme aims to support 90,000 young people who have been claiming Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months, funding 25 hours of paid work every week for six months. The government has also said it plans 300,000 more work experience placements and 50,000 more youth apprenticeship starts, and has already rolled out £3,000 hiring incentives for employers who take on young people who have been out of work for six months.
Opposition politicians were unconvinced. Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately claimed Labour had ‘destroyed job opportunities for young people’ through higher taxes, pointing to increases in employer National Insurance contributions. For the Liberal Democrats, Munira Wilson described the Neet total as a ‘generational betrayal’ and called for the government to make it ‘more attractive for businesses to take on apprentices, boosting the number of degree apprenticeships, and crucially, reversing Labour’s damaging job tax’.
The human cost behind the statistics is real. Asia Mason, 22, from London, spent more than two years applying for jobs after leaving college with a health and social care qualification. She applied for more than 30 roles but was repeatedly told she lacked experience. ‘I remember thinking, “How am I supposed to get experience if nobody is willing to give me the opportunity to gain it?”‘ she said. She eventually found her first NHS role after completing a social care programme run by The King’s Trust charity. Milburn’s first report warned that without action, one in six young people could be out of work within five years, and that ‘we are at risk of a lost generation.’ The final report is now the moment to test whether that warning produces a concrete plan.
