NEET means Not in Education, Employment or Training, and in UK statistics it describes young people aged 16 to 24 who are in none of those three. In its release of 28 May 2026, drawn from the Labour Force Survey, the Office for National Statistics estimated that 1,012,000 young people aged 16–24 in the UK were NEET in January to March 2026 — 13.5% of that age group, up 89,000 on the year. It is the first time the figure has passed one million since 2013. Of that total, around 400,000 were unemployed and about 613,000 economically inactive. For further education and employability providers, a number this size is a workforce question as much as a policy one: re-engaging young people at scale takes people to deliver it — employability advisors, youth and engagement workers, coaches, mentors and keyworkers who carry the caseload. This piece sets out the figures, then the roles behind the response.
What does NEET mean?
NEET means Not in Education, Employment or Training. In UK statistics it counts young people aged 16 to 24 who are not in any form of education or training and not in work. The ONS reports it every quarter from the Labour Force Survey, and splits the total into two groups that matter for how a provider responds to it.
The first group is unemployed young people: out of work, but actively looking for a job and available to start. The second is the economically inactive: not in work and either not looking for a job or not available to start one, for reasons the survey records at a population level rather than a personal one. The distinction is practical, not academic — someone who is job-ready and searching needs different support from someone who is not yet engaged with work or study at all, and providers have to staff for both.
How many young people are NEET in 2026?
In its 28 May 2026 release, the ONS estimated that 1,012,000 young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were NEET in January to March 2026 — 13.5% of everyone in that age group. That is up 89,000 on the year and marks the first time the figure has been above one million since 2013.
The breakdown matters more than the headline. Of the total, around 400,000 were unemployed and about 613,000 were economically inactive — so the larger share are young people who are not currently looking for or available for work, rather than job-ready jobseekers. The rate is also higher among young men than young women.
| Measure (UK, Jan–Mar 2026) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Young people aged 16–24 who are NEET | 1,012,000 (13.5%) |
| Change on the year | +89,000 |
| Unemployed (looking for and available for work) | ~400,000 |
| Economically inactive (not looking for or not available) | ~613,000 |
| Young men who are NEET | 553,000 (14.4%) |
| Young women who are NEET | 459,000 (12.5%) |
Figures: Office for National Statistics NEET bulletin, released 28 May 2026 (Labour Force Survey). Totals are rounded as published.
Why has NEET risen — and why it matters to providers
The year-on-year rise of 89,000 takes the total past a threshold it had not crossed since 2013, and the composition is the part providers should read closely. With about 613,000 of the total economically inactive, most of the group are young people who are not yet job-searching. Re-engaging someone who has stepped away from both work and study is a longer, more intensive piece of delivery than helping a job-ready school-leaver into a role — it starts with contact and confidence before it reaches CVs and interviews.
For an FE college, a training provider or an employability prime, a number this size is a delivery pressure and a commissioning opportunity at once. It shapes the volume of youth-focused provision — 16-to-19 study programmes, Skills Bootcamps, supported-employment and welfare-to-work contracts — and it puts weight on the frontline workforce that carries them. That workforce is the reason we treat employability as one of the sectors we specialise in: the constraint on scaling a response to a rising NEET figure is rarely the funding line, it is finding enough of the right people to hold a caseload well.
Scaling a youth or employability contract and short of advisors, coaches or keyworkers to hold the caseload? Talk to a specialist team that recruits only for this sector.
The roles behind re-engaging young people
Re-engagement is delivered by people, so a rising NEET figure is really a rising demand for a cluster of frontline and support roles. The job titles vary by provider and contract, but the work sits in a recognisable set:
- Employability advisors and work coaches — the caseload-holders who assess need, build an action plan and move a young person towards work, training or education.
- Youth workers, engagement and outreach workers, and keyworkers — the people who make and keep contact with young people who are not yet job-searching, the harder-to-reach part of the economically inactive group.
- Skills coaches, tutors and mentors — who deliver the confidence, functional skills and vocational steps that sit between disengagement and a sustainable role.
These roles overlap, and providers combine them differently, but they share a common recruitment reality: they need people who can build trust quickly, manage a caseload and evidence progress for funders. That mix of pastoral skill and delivery discipline is not easy to hire at volume, which is why welfare-to-work and youth provision so often compete for the same shortlist. If re-engaging young people is the work you want to do yourself, our guide on how to become an employability advisor sets out the route in and what employers actually look for.
If you can hold a caseload and evidence real progress with young people, these are exactly the roles we place people into.
How providers staff a rising youth caseload
When a NEET figure moves like this, staffing tends to move in two directions at once. Providers scale up permanent delivery teams for provision they expect to run for years, and bring in interim advisors and coaches to mobilise quickly when a new contract lands or referral volumes spike. Welfare-to-work and youth contracts are unforgiving on ramp-up — a caseload that arrives faster than the team to hold it shows up in outcomes and in the audit — so the ability to hire ahead of the curve is part of the delivery model, not an afterthought.
This is the ground our team works on. We recruit only across the further education, skills and employability sectors, and the founders came from delivery roles in it, so we know what a manageable caseload looks like, why a Connect to Work or Restart-style contract needs its team in place before referrals arrive, and where the pinch points are when providers all hire at once. For the staffing side specifically, our notes on how Connect to Work and welfare-to-work provision is staffed and on the delivery roles behind welfare-to-work and FE provision set out how we approach it, and you can see how we work with employers across permanent, interim and executive briefs.
Standing up a youth or employability caseload before referrals arrive, or replacing an advisor mid-contract without dropping outcomes? Talk to a specialist team that can shortlist people who have done it before.
Frequently asked questions
What does NEET stand for? NEET stands for Not in Education, Employment or Training. In UK statistics it describes young people aged 16 to 24 who are not in any form of education or training and not in work. The Office for National Statistics reports the figure every quarter using the Labour Force Survey.
How many young people are NEET in 2026? The ONS estimated that 1,012,000 young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were NEET in January to March 2026 — 13.5% of that age group — in its release of 28 May 2026. That was up 89,000 on the year and the first time the total has been above one million since 2013.
What is the difference between unemployed and economically inactive NEET young people? Unemployed young people are out of work but actively looking for a job and available to start; economically inactive young people are not in work and either not looking or not available to start. Of the 2026 total, around 400,000 were unemployed and about 613,000 were economically inactive — so most of the group are not job-searching, which is why re-engagement often starts before formal job-search support.
Which roles do providers hire to re-engage NEET young people? Re-engagement is delivered through employability advisors and work coaches who hold the caseload; youth, engagement and outreach workers and keyworkers who reach the harder-to-reach; and skills coaches, tutors and mentors who build the confidence and functional skills that sit between disengagement and a sustainable role. Recruiting people who can build trust quickly and evidence progress is the practical constraint on scaling youth and welfare-to-work provision.
