The number of young people not in education, employment or training has fallen to 981,000 from more than a million earlier this year, new figures have shown.
The latest ONS data shows that the proportion of all young people in the UK who were Neet in April to June 2026 was 13.0 per cent – 0.5 per cent less than from January to March 2026.
The government is under significant pressure to solve the country’s growing Neet crisis, which refers to the number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment, or training.
The new figures come ahead of expected recommendations for fundamental reform in former Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn’s final report into young people and work, which is due to be published in the autumn.
In May, his review found the youth unemployment crisis is costing Britain £125bn a year, which is more than the country spends on education and almost double the defence budget.
Mr Milburn warned that without urgent action, the number of young people who are Neet will rise by 2031 from one in eight to one in six, affecting 1.25 million young people.
Launching his interim report, Mr Milburn said the characterisation of young people as not trying is “a myth”, adding: “The story of not trying, being soft, being a snowflake generation – I just don’t buy it.”
Instead, he said, the issue is that the system is “no longer working”: “The problem is that for too many young people, opportunities are not growing – they’re shrinking.”
The government has previously said it wants to see “the potential of young people up and down this country fully realised, whether that be through education, training or work” and cited a £2.5 billion youth employment support package which includes a new apprenticeship bursary for families on universal credit.
Days into his premiership, Andy Burnham announced a major shake-up to England’s education system in a bid to tackle youth unemployment and continue the government’s devolution drive.
The new prime minister said he would tell schools across the country to adapt their curriculum to fit the needs of local business through new “prestigious” technical education routes.
ONS data for Neets begins in 2001 and shows the total peaked at 1.25 million in July-September 2011, or around one in six (16.9 per cent) of all 16-24 year-olds.
This peak came in the aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crash and recession.
After 2011 the number started to fall, returning to pre-recession levels by 2014 and reaching 750,000 in October-December 2019.
This decline came to a halt in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the number of Neets fluctuated around 700,000 to 800,000 and showed no clear trend up or down.
The figure then started to climb steadily in early 2022, coinciding with the end of the pandemic and the start of the cost-of-living crisis and a sharp rise in inflation.
It had reached around one in eight (12.9 per cent) by January-March 2024 and stood at nearly one in seven (13.5 per cent) in January-March 2026.
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