More than one million young people not in education, employment or training
Newsflash: The number of young people in the UK not in education, employment or training (Neets) has risen over one million, for the first time in over a decade.
The Office for National Statistics has just reported that there were 1,012,000 young people, between the ages of 16 and 24, who were ‘Neet’ in January to March 2026.
That’s an increase of 89,000 over the last year, and 55,000 more than in the previous quarter.
That’s a timely example of the growing Neets crisis, as Alan Milburn releases his report into the situation today.
The ONS says:
This increase was largely among young men, with an increase of 55,000 on the year, as well as an increase among young women of 34,000 on the year. Of the total number of young people who were NEET, 553,000 were young men and 459,000 were young women.
Eyeballing the ONS’s data, this looks to be the first time since October-December 2013 that there have been more than one million 16-24 year olds not in education, employment or training
It takes the percentage of all young people in the UK who were NEET in January to March 2026 up to 13.5%.
Key events
US growth revised down
Elsewhere in the world economy today, the US didn’t grow as fast as first estimated in January-March.
US GDP rose at an annualised rate of 1.6% in Q1 2026, new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows, the equivalent of a 0.4% rise in the quarter.
That’s down from an initial estimate of 2% annualised growth.
The BEA says it has revised down its estimates of investment and consumer spending in the last quarter.
This still shows a pick-up compared to the end of last year, thanks to upturns in government spending and exports.
TUC blasts “cynical attempts” to blame workers’ rights laws for Neets crisis
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak is urging the government to ignore “cynical attempts to blame new workers’ rights laws” for the rise in Neets.
Pushing back against criticism of the youth minimum wage, Nowak says:
Young people pay the same bills as everyone else and deserve a fair wage for their work.
“Youth rates are not only unfair, but they’re also increasingly obsolete as most businesses hardly use them.
“Cutting the minimum wage for young workers is not the way to get – or retain – them in the jobs market.
“The independent experts at the Low Pay Commission have said employment for young people has done better where minimum wage coverage is highest – and shown that successive governments have closed the gap between the adult rate and youth rate with no negative impact on employment.”
Milburn has explained why the Netherlands has such a low Neets rate (5.3%), while the UK’s is almost three times higher, telling reporters:
First of all, it’s about the question that you ask, which is they make a priority of vocational education and investment in it. And when you look at the numbers, there’s a far higher proportion of Dutch kids, Dutch young people, in the equivalent of our FE colleges than there are here. So they’ve made a deliberate choice and it’s produced a pretty good outcome.
Secondly, they approach things in different structural way. So one of the very striking features of the Dutch system, for example, is it’s much more integrated. The services pull together. Ours is fractured. They’re integrated. They’re pulled together.
There’s one data set. Critically there’s one organisation responsible. We have no one responsible here because everyone is.
And the final part of the action that they seem to get right, that we get wrong, is that employers are much more engaged from the outset with the education system, so that kids are getting familiarity with employers, with the world of work, with work experience, with all of those things that we know that employers are crying out for.
Our Politics Live blog has more details:
Lizzie Crowley, senior skills adviser at the HR body CIPD, says the government should suppor a new Apprenticeship Guarantee for all 16-24 year olds, to help younger people get opportunities.
“Young people are desperate for an opportunity to prove themselves, but many are struggling to navigate a labour market where entry-level opportunities, work experience and structured progression routes have become harder to access.
“Today’s Milburn Review findings and ONS figures highlight that much bolder action is needed to support youth employment given the collapse in the number of apprenticeships for 16-24 year olds and the general reduction in entry level roles.
UK risks £125bn hit a year from youth unemployment, landmark report says
Richard Partington
Britain risks a financial hit worth £125bn a year from a worsening crisis in youth worklessness after a rise in the number of young people not in employment or education to more than 1 million.
In his landmark government-backed report, Alan Milburn warned that Britain’s economy and the public finances were losing billions of pounds a year amid the growing risk of a “lost generation” of young people.
Firms blame rising labour costs
UK businesses are blaming the government for raising employment costs, fuelling the Neets crisis.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, says the retail industry has shed almost 400,000 jobs in the last decade, meaning fewer opportunities for young people.
Dickinson points to the tax rises in Rachel Reeves first budget, saying:
“The patchwork of support for jobseekers and employers is complex and often misaligned. Interventions like the Youth Jobs Grant and Jobs Guarantee are welcome but are held back by the massive rise in employment costs and regulations faced by businesses.
In April 2025, the cost of employing someone in a full-time entry level job rose by 10%, and part-time an additional 13%. Implementation of aspects of the Employment Rights Act risk limiting more entry level jobs. Government must join the dots between tax, red tape, and its efforts to reduce unemployment.
Allen Simpson, chief executive of UKHospitality, also blames the rise in employers’ national insurance rates (NICs):
“This interim report is clear sighted analysis of how significantly increasing employment costs directly reduces job opportunities, particularly for young people.
“The rapid loss of around 100,000 hospitality jobs after the 2024 Budget and the increase to employer NICs was the canary in the coal mine and should have been recognised as such by the Government.
“The solution is to reduce the cost of employment for hospitality businesses. As the biggest youth employer and driver of social mobility, thousands of job opportunities can be unlocked as a result. The Government needs to make it economically beneficial to employ young people once again.
Milburn: Employers are ‘absolutely critical’ for fixing youth unemployment crisis
It is vital that UK employers create more job opportunities for young people, Alan Milburn tells reporters.
Milburn (born in 1958) says his generation grew up with the idea that you’d walk into work, perhaps starting with a Saturday job.
He also reveals he was sacked from an early stint as a paperboy in Newcastle for not getting out of bed.
He says:
Employers are absolutely critical to this. unless we can generate more opportunities for young people we’re really not fixing the generational crisis.
Alan Milburn has now been asked why the UK has a worse Neets crisis than Europe.
He says the problem goes back decades and is a structural problem, with the UK’s persistent lack of a sustained strategy and a proper architecture to help young people.
People have seen it but not acted in the past, deciding instead to play the ‘blame game’, blaming phones, parents, employers, or politicians, he added.
EU Neets total has dropped
We flagged earlier that Milburn believes the UK’s Neet problem is worse than in other countries – and new data has just born this out!
Across Europe, the Neet crisis eased slightly last year.
Across the EU, the share of young people who were not in employment, education or training (Neet) dipped to 11.0% in 2025, down from 11.1% in 2024.
Back in 2015, at the height of the eurozone debt crisis, 15.2% of young people in the EU were out of work, training or education – so there’s been quite a recovery over the last decade.
The EU’s Neets data tracks people aged 15 to 29, while the UK looks at 16-24 year olds, so the data is only broadly comparable.
But even so, the contrast is notable.
The lowest Neet rates for young people were registered in the Netherlands (5.3%), Sweden (5.9%) and Slovenia (7.6%). In contrast, the highest rates were in Romania (19.2%), Bulgaria (13.8%) and Greece (13.6%), statistics body Eurostat says.
Reminder, the UK’s Neet rate is now 13.5%, after rising in the first quarter of this year.
Milburn: One million Neets is a ‘warning’
Alan Milburn begins his speech by pointing to this morning’s data showing that more than a million young people are not in eductation, employment or training.
The former health secretary says:
It’s more than a statistic, it’s a warning. A warning that far too many young people are reaching adulthood only to find the door to opportunity closed.
Milburn also describes ‘neet’ as an ugly term with ugly consequences.
Aspirations thwarted, confidence drained, futures narrowed before they’ve properly begun.
Alan Milburn is giving a press conference now to discuss his interim report into the rising number of young people not in work or education in the UK.
He’s being introduced by Pat McFaddon, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. McFaddon is explaining that responding to the report is a task for ‘all of government’, and beyond.
My colleague Andrew Sparrow is live-blogging the event here:
Alan Milburn’s report into the UK’s Neets crisis has now been published.
My colleague Peter Walker has read it, and reports:
Its 217 pages cover the extent and causes of the issue – with possible solutions coming in his next report – and set out a hugely detailed and damning picture of what Milburn calls a “record of failure”, one that is letting down young people.
Here are the key points:
IPPR: One million Neets is a national crisis and a human tragedy
Over 1 million young people being out of work and out of education is “a national crisis” for the UK, says Ellie Harris, principal research fellow and head of children and young people at the IPPR thinktank.
“Yes, it’s an economic challenge, but it’s also a human tragedy – young people are being blocked from learning new skills, getting their first job and becoming independent.
“We’re wasting a generation’s talent, skill, and potential. We must act urgently, so that young people are supported to live a life of opportunity, that gives them a sense of self-worth.”
The jump in the number of young people aged 16–24 not in education, employment or training to over a million shows that more government support is needed, says Jon Fitzmaurice, head of external engagement at the Work Foundation at Lancaster University.
Fitzmaurice warns that current Government youth employment interventions “appear to be seriously underpowered”, explaining:
“The Jobs Guarantee and Youth Jobs Grant could help some young people into work, but together they are expected to support around 50,000 people a year. In an unforgiving labour market, with vacancies continuing to fall and demand for traditional entry-level roles weakening, much more ambitious action will be needed – particularly for young people facing multiple barriers to work.
“These statistics underline the need for a longer-term strategy. Government must take a bolder approach to expanding tailored employment support and job creation, working closely with trusted local partners and employers to help young people access secure and sustainable work. But it must also tackle the deep-rooted inequalities –including educational disadvantage, poor health and unequal access to opportunity – that shape young people’s prospects long before they enter the labour market.”
Four hundred thousand of the UK’s one million ‘Neets’ were unemployed, the ONS reports.
That’s 45,000 more than in the first quarter of 2025, but actually 11,000 fewer than in the last three months of last year.
An estimated 257,000 of these unemployed young people were young men, and 143,000 were young women.
The ONS defines unemployed to be “actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks.”
That leaves around 613,000 young people who were classed as ‘economically inactive’ – ie, neither in work nor looking for a job.
Elise Rohan, head of labour market output at the ONS, says:
“The number of young people not in employment, education or training rose above one million in the first quarter of 2026, to its highest level in more than 12 years. This was driven by greater numbers of young people no longer looking for work.”
More than one million young people not in education, employment or training
Newsflash: The number of young people in the UK not in education, employment or training (Neets) has risen over one million, for the first time in over a decade.
The Office for National Statistics has just reported that there were 1,012,000 young people, between the ages of 16 and 24, who were ‘Neet’ in January to March 2026.
That’s an increase of 89,000 over the last year, and 55,000 more than in the previous quarter.
That’s a timely example of the growing Neets crisis, as Alan Milburn releases his report into the situation today.
The ONS says:
This increase was largely among young men, with an increase of 55,000 on the year, as well as an increase among young women of 34,000 on the year. Of the total number of young people who were NEET, 553,000 were young men and 459,000 were young women.
Eyeballing the ONS’s data, this looks to be the first time since October-December 2013 that there have been more than one million 16-24 year olds not in education, employment or training
It takes the percentage of all young people in the UK who were NEET in January to March 2026 up to 13.5%.
