The number of young people not in education, employment, or training is going down
The job prospects for young people are improving, despite the fact unemployment overall has stopped declining.
There were 922,000 young people who were not in education, employment or training (Neets) from April to June, the Office for National Statistics said this morning. It marks a drop of 21,000 from the first quarter of this year.
The percentage of all young people who are Neets was 12.7 per cent, down from 13.2 per cent during the same three months in 2014.
People who are Neets are not in work but looking for a job – the ONS classes them as unemployed – or not in work and not looking for a job – which the ONS calls economically inactive.
There are far more unemployed Neet men aged 16 to 24 than women, at 263,000 compared with 168,000. However, there are more economically inactive women aged 16 to 24 than men, at 329,000 compared with 161,000.
The falling number of Neets contrasts with the trend in the UK labour market, which has seen unemployment stall at around 5.6 per cent over the last several months.