Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), UK: August 2026

• Estimates from January to March 2025 include the full effect of the improvements in Labour Force Survey (LFS) data collection and sampling methods introduced from January 2024 onwards. 

• Some volatility remains in the LFS estimates, particularly those for mid-2023 and throughout 2024, as well as for granular breakdowns in which sample sizes are smaller, such as estimates of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). 

• There were an estimated 981,000 young people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK who were NEET in April to June 2026; this number increased by 30,000 when compared with April to June 2025 but was down by 30,000 on January to March 2026. 

• The percentage of all young people in the UK who were NEET in April to June 2026 was 13.0%; this proportion was up by 0.2 percentage points from April to June 2025, but down by 0.5 percentage points from January to March 2026.

Alongside our labour market publication in July 2026, we published our Labour Force Survey quality update article. The article provides users with information about current response rates and known biases in Labour Force Survey (LFS) data, to help them better understand the current quality of the data.    

Estimates from January to March 2025 include the full effect of the improvements in LFS data collection and sampling methods introduced from January 2024 onwards. Since then, further changes that were introduced to help increase response levels may have an ongoing impact on the survey. Some volatility remains, particularly for estimates for mid-2023 and throughout 2024, as well as for granular breakdowns, in which sample sizes are smaller.   

For example, we can consider estimates of redundancies or estimates of young people not in employment, education or training. Both concepts focus on much smaller population subgroups compared with the headline rates. Therefore, both are more vulnerable to the effects of higher sampling variability, despite improved sample sizes. We advise users to use caution when drawing conclusions from short-term changes, and to focus on long-term movements in the data.

An estimated 13.0% of all people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in April to June 2026. This is up by 0.2 percentage points on the year, but down by 0.5 percentage points compared with January to March 2026. 

An estimated 13.7% of young men were NEET, up by 0.4 percentage points on the year, but down 0.6 percentage points on the quarter. Of young women, an estimated 12.3% were NEET, which remained largely the same on the year but was down 0.3 percentage points on the quarter. 

There were 981,000 young people who were NEET in April to June 2026, an increase of 30,000 on the year, but a decrease of 30,000 on the quarter. This increase was largely among young men, with an increase of 25,000 on the year, as well as an increase among young women of 4,000 on the year. Of the total number of young people who were NEET, 530,000 were young men and 451,000 were young women. 

The total number of people aged 18 to 24 years who were NEET was 894,000, up 17,000 on the year but down 33,000 on the previous quarter. 

The percentage of all those aged 18 to 24 years who were NEET was 15.2%, which remained largely the same on the year, but was down by 0.6 percentage points on the quarter.

Unemployed young people who were not in education, employment or training 

There was an estimated 393,000 young people NEET aged 16 to 24 years who were unemployed in April to June 2026. This was up by 26,000 from April to June 2025, but down by 2,000 from January to March 2026. 

An estimated 252,000 of these unemployed young people NEET were young men, and 141,000 were young women. The number of NEET men aged 16 to 24 years who were unemployed increased by 24,000 from April to June 2025. The number of NEET women aged 16 to 24 years who were unemployed increased by 3,000 on the year.

Economically inactive young people who were not in education, employment or training 

There were an estimated 588,000 economically inactive young people aged 16 to 24 years who were NEET in April to June 2026. This was up by 4,000 on the year from April to June 2025, but down by 28,000 on the quarter from January to March 2026. 

The number of young men who were NEET and economically inactive was 278,000, and the corresponding number of young women was 310,000. The total increase of 4,000 on the year was similarly distributed between young men and women, with an increase of 2,000 for both from April to June 2025. 

Subnational not in education, employment or training estimates 

We do not publish subnational estimates for people who are NEET. These estimates can be accessed by following the links in Section 7: Related links.

Young people 

For this release, young people are defined as those aged 16 to 24 years. Estimates are also produced for the age groups 16 to 17 years and 18 to 24 years by sex, and separately for the age groups 18 to 20 years, 21 to 22 years, and 23 to 24 years. 

Education and training 

People are considered to be in education or training if they: 

• are enrolled on an education course and are still attending or waiting for term to start or restart 

• are doing an apprenticeship 

• are on a government-supported employment or training programme 

• are working or studying towards a qualification 

• have had job-related training or education in the last four weeks 

Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) 

Anybody who is not in any of the forms of education or training previously listed and not in employment is considered to be NEET. As a result, a person identified as NEET will always be either unemployed or economically inactive. 

Economic inactivity 

People not in the labour force (also known as economically inactive) are not in employment, but do not meet the internationally accepted definition of unemployment because they have not been seeking work within the last four weeks and/or they are unable to start work in the next two weeks. 

Employment 

Employment measures the number of people in paid work, or those who had a job that they were temporarily away from (for example, because they were on holiday or off sick). This differs from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job. 

Unemployment 

Unemployment measures people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. 

A more detailed glossary is available in our guide to Labour Market Statistics.

This statistical bulletin contains estimates for young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the UK. The bulletin is published quarterly in February or March, May, August and November. All estimates discussed in this statistical bulletin are for the UK and are seasonally adjusted. NEET estimates have been revised back to January to March 2020 because of a seasonal adjustment review.

Statistics in this bulletin are used to help monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Explore the UK data on our SDGs reporting platform. 

Background information that explains how missing information for identifying someone as NEET is appropriated based on individual characteristics can be found in our Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), UK: May 2022 methodology. 

Official statistics 

Since late 2023, we have taken a series of actions to recover the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and improve its quality, including returning to face-to-face interviewing, increasing respondent incentives, reinstating the sample boost, recruiting additional interviewers and updating the survey weighting. These measures have improved response levels from their lowest point to levels similar to those seen before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.  

On 11 August 2026, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) wrote a letter to the Office for Statistics Regulation about the designation of LFS and APS outputs. Outputs derived from the LFS and Annual Population Survey (APS) are currently official statistics in development and will move to official statistics. The ONS will not be seeking reaccreditation. Instead, our priority is for outputs based on the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), as the online-first sustainable replacement for the LFS and APS to achieve the standards required to become accredited official statistics and for the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to consider their accreditation at the earliest opportunity.  

An operational error occurred in May 2026, which led to temporary under-resourcing in LFS telephone collection operations. Our analysis to date indicates that the error had a minimal impact on the headline estimates. More on the operational issue can be found in our LFS quality update article, which also includes information about current response rates and known biases in the LFS data. 

As part of our work to address quality concerns with the LFS, we have seen improvements in response levels and rates, with responses now close to their pre-pandemic level. The achieved sample, including imputed cases (the dataset size), has increased from 80,078 individuals in January to March 2026 to 81,193 individuals in April to June 2026. This is shown in our LFS performance and quality monitoring report: April to June 2026 methodology. More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Labour Force Survey quality and methodology information (QMI) report.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) 

Read more about how the labour market data sources are affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article. 

For a comparison of our labour market data sources and the main differences, read our Comparison of our labour market data sources methodology. 

Relationship to other labour market statistics for young people 

Our monthly Labour market statistical bulletin includes the dataset A06: Educational status and labour market status for people aged from 16 to 24. The NEET statistics and the dataset A06 statistics are both derived from the LFS and use the same labour market statuses; however, the educational statuses are derived differently. 

For dataset A06, the educational status is based on participation in full-time education only. For NEET statistics, the educational status is based on any form of education or training. Therefore, the dataset A06 category "not in full-time education" includes some people who are in part-time education and/or some form of training, and who, consequently, should not be regarded as NEET. 

Other analyses are available, such as Benefit receipt in the four financial years following Census 2021 for young people aged 16 to 24 years on Census Day, England - Office for National Statistics, that are not directly comparable to analysis found within this bulletin but may add context for users.  

Strengths and limitations 

The figures in this bulletin come from the LFS, which gathers information from a sample of households across the UK, rather than from the whole population. The sample is designed to be as accurate as possible, given practical limitations. Results from sample surveys are always estimates and not precise figures. This can have an impact on how changes in the estimates should be interpreted. For more information on sampling, see Section 2 of our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys methodology. 

As the sample gets smaller, the variability of the estimates gets larger. Estimates for small groups, which are based on small subsets of the LFS sample, are less reliable and tend to be more volatile than for larger aggregated groups. 

In general, changes in the numbers (and especially the rates) reported in this bulletin between quarters are small and are not usually greater than the level that can be explained by sampling variability. Short-term movements in reported rates should be considered alongside longer-term patterns in the series and corresponding movements in other sources, to give a fuller picture.  

Our Sampling variability dataset shows sampling variabilities for estimates of young people who are NEET derived from the LFS.