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By David Milliken
LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Nearly 1 million Britons aged 16-24 were not in employment, education or training at the end of last year, the second-highest level in more than a decade, according to official data released on Thursday.
The rate of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is sometimes seen as a better guide to labour market difficulties than the headline youth unemployment rate, which was the highest in 10 years in the last quarter of 2025.
Thursday’s data showed that the number of NEETs aged 16-24 rose to 957,000 in the last quarter of 2025 from 946,000 the quarter before – just short of 971,000 in the final quarter of 2024 which was the highest since 2014.
The latest NEET rate is equivalent 12.8% of the workforce, up from 12.7% in the last quarter but below a 10-year high of 13.2% a year earlier and compares to an unemployment rate of 16.1% for 16-64 year olds.
Earlier this week, Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill told a parliament committee that a rise in the minimum wage and employer social security charges had contributed to the difficulty young people face in getting a foothold in the job market.
This view is shared by many academic economists: 15 out of 19 in a poll by Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research and the London School of Economics’ Centre for Macroeconomics judged that government policy was a “very” or “moderately important” driver of youth unemployment.
LSE economics professor Ricardo Reis said “government policy changes are the most likely proximate cause for such large movements in young joblessness”, though he added that there was not conclusive evidence, and others pointed to broader economic weakness and artificial intelligence as factors.
Louise Murphy, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said finance minister Rachel Reeves should use a fiscal statement next week to widen eligibility for work placements and to pause plans to narrow the gap between the minimum wage rates for 18-20 year olds and older workers.
(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce)
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