NEETs means – Not in Education, Employment or Training and is a term for the number of 16-24 year olds not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET).
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the number of NEETs in the November 2025 figures was estimated to be:
ONS November 2025: There are 946,000 young people aged 16-24 were not in education, employment, or training (NEET) in July to September 2025, down from 948,000 in April to June 2025.
This represents 12.7% of all young people (aged 16-24 years old), down 0.1 percentage points on the previous quarter and 0.5 percentage points year-on-year from 13.2%.
Commentators regularly state that there are nearly 1 Million NEETs, but the ONS figures show this is just below this, between July – September 2025, according to the ONS, the number of NEETs actually reduced slightly (by 2,000). A drop from 948,000 to 946,000 NEETs. (from the November 2025 ONS NEETs data compared to the August 2025 ONS NEETs official figures).
However, this number, according to Barry Fletcher, CEO at the Youth Futures Foundation, is actually “One in eight are still out of work or learning. Over a third of unemployed young people have been looking for work for over six months.”
Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, said (when commenting on the December 2025 ONS Labour Market Information): “here are now 546,000 young people aged 18-24 who are unemployed – the highest since 2015 and up by 85,000 on quarter”.
Alan Milburn Review was announced in 2025 to gain a better understanding of what is causing the NEET crisis, and the number of NEETs remains at a persistent level.
The Milburn Review is a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of record unemployment and inactivity among 16 to 24 year olds with a call for young people and a range of experts to come forward with their views.
The Call for Evidence for the Milburn Review is open until 30 January 2026 and gives young people and their stakeholders the opportunity to shape Mr Milburn’s report
“There are almost one million young people not in education, employment or training. This is shocking. We need educational reform and the devolution of power and support…
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 823: 15th November 2025. Milburn, Mayfield and Timms: Why Are They So Important To The FE, Skills And Employability Sector?…
Led by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn, the probe will examine why increasing numbers of young people are falling out of work or education before…
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 819: 18th October 2025. NEBOSH is sponsoring this week’s Soundbite This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal by FE News:…
Overview Almost 1 million young people in the UK are now classed as NEET – not in education, employment, or training. For those of us…
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 818: 11th October 2025. How Do We Meet The Missing Middle Skills Needs? This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal…
We caught up with Skills Minister Jacqui Smith this week at the Energy and Utility Skills Conference to talk about the Government’s big push on…
When Sir Keir Starmer addressed the Labour Party conference last week, he did more than deliver a political speech, told a story that seemed to…
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 816: 27th September 2025 What Do Post-16 Pathways, Mental Health and Safeguarding Concerns Tell Us About Youth Progression? This is…
If I had half an hour with Baroness Jacqui Smith, Minister of State for Skills, over a coffee, I’d love to have a chat about…
Please confirm you want to block this member.
You will no longer be able to:
Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.
