The number of young people not doing anything with their lives has hit its highest level in 11 years. Figures released this morning by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training – so-called NEETs – show that the number has reached just under one million in the last three months of 2024. Standing at 987,000, the number of NEETs is up by 110,000 since the end of 2023 – equivalent to a town the size of Oldham.
The new data means that nearly one in seven Britons aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training. The figures are worse for young men than for women (14.4 per cent vs 12.3
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