Picture a young person left on the sidelines of society, and you might imagine a teenage boy sitting in his bedroom with nothing to do.
Yet while the crisis of young people not in education, employment or training (Neets) has until now largely been driven by young men, there are signs that this is shifting.
An increasing number of young women are being classified as Neets, according to recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with this group now the driving force behind rising numbers overall.
There were 948,000 16 to 24-year-olds who were not in work, education or training across Britain by the end of June, according to the ONS, a slight increase from the previous figures up to March.
The number of female Neets in the three months to the end of June rose by 25,000 to 450,000. By contrast, the number of male Neets dropped by 1,000 over the same period.
While workless young men still outnumber women – 497,000 16 to 24-year-old men are classed as Neets – the change in dynamics is striking.
The shift comes amid a surge in mental health problems for young women, who are more than twice as likely to suffer as men.
A 2024 NHS survey found that 36.1pc of females aged 16 to 24 reported suffering from common mental health conditions – ranging from panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder to phobias – compared to 16.3pc of males in the same age group.
Worryingly, the survey also showed that rates of self-harm among females aged 16 to 24 stood at 31.7pc.
Chris Goulden, of the Youth Futures Foundation, said mental health problems “make it a lot harder” to stay in education, employment or training.
“There’s a feedback loop between extended periods of unemployment or economic inactivity affecting your mental health as well as mental health problems, making you less likely to be able to engage with job seeking”, he says.
Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, has linked the crisis to smartphones and social media. Discussing the “very marked increase in mental health conditions” among young people, the then work and pensions secretary told a parliamentary select committee: “What went from an era of lowish-grade email communication across the internet has become something that is in your pocket all the time.
“For young girls, that has meant that it has propagated the idea of an idealised life that one can have, and everybody is beautiful, and everything is friendly, lovely and wonderful.
“The real world is not like that, but it is in your pocket all the time, telling you it is that when you look at your TikTok and Instagram and so on.”
Research carried out by the Youth Futures Foundation alongside the University of Manchester found that the increase in mental health problems among young people had coincided with a decline in youth services, increased social media and smartphone use, and a decline in sleep quality.
The rising numbers of female Neets may also have their roots in schools. Figures from the Department of Education show that 21.9pc of girls were persistently absent last year, compared to 20.3pc of boys.
Meanwhile, this year’s exam results also revealed that boys were more likely to get a grade 4 or above in maths GCSE. Girls are also now being outperformed by boys at A-level.
Goulden says it can be more of a challenge for young women leaving school with low or no qualifications to find a job or apprenticeship.
“There are generally fewer options available through that route for the kinds of sectors and careers that young women with low qualifications might be seeking – care, beauty or service sector jobs.”
Unemployment is the most common reason for a Neet across the country as a whole. However, this masks significant differences between the sexes. Half of male Neets are classed as unemployed, compared to 31pc of Neet young women.
Young women are more impacted by caring responsibilities. One in four are not in work or education primarily because they are looking after a child or other family member, compared to just 3pc of men.
Elizabeth Gerard, of the Learning and Work Institute, adds: “People who are caring are also more likely to be facing their own health difficulties, so because they are out of work or unable to work that many hours because of their own ill health, it places them more into a caring role for others.”
Gerard says young women must have access to “individualised support” to help get them back into education, employment and training.
Cooling job market
However, the situation has been made more challenging by a cooling job market. Companies are cutting back on hiring following Rachel Reeves’s tax raid in the autumn Budget, which pushed up labour costs for businesses.
Entry-level jobs have slumped to a five-year low, according to the latest UK job market report from recruitment platform Adzuna. The slowdown has meant competition for graduate jobs, apprenticeships and other starter roles has increased sharply.
Neets find it particularly hard to compete. Ben Gadsby, of Impetus, a youth charity, says: “They’re being beaten to jobs by people who, if they were at university, did internships during the summer, or the ones that did have a Saturday job.”
A key route into work for many young people is through seasonal and part-time work in pubs, restaurants and cafes. However, finding these roles is becoming increasingly challenging, too.
Job openings in the hospitality sector fell by more than 22,000 in June compared to the same month a year earlier, according to figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).
Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, says: “For too many young people, especially women, the door into work is getting harder to open just as opportunities should be expanding. Yet rather than tackling the barriers that hold people back, Labour’s policies are piling costs on employers and choking off job creation.”
The recent ONS Neets data marked the second period in a row in which the total number for young women rose while the number for young men fell. However, Gadsby stresses that the trend is in its infancy, making it hard to say for sure what is behind it.
“There probably is an emerging trend for Neet rates going up in general, and they seem to be going up slightly faster for girls than boys,” he says.
Yet if the change is sustained, it will have significant implications for policy. While a stagnant jobs market affects men and women alike, issues like mental health and caring responsibilities do not. Getting more young women into work or education may therefore require a different solution.
Whately says: “A lost generation of young people out of work would be devastating for their prospects, for families, and for the country’s future. Britain cannot afford to drift into higher worklessness.”
A government spokesman said: “We will ensure that every young person has the opportunity to succeed in work – that’s why we’ve extended a scheme which ensures employers do not pay National Insurance contributions when hiring someone under the age of 21 until they earn over £50,270.
“Alongside this, thousands more young people will benefit from tailored training and employment support through the £45m extension to our Youth Trailblazer programme as we overhaul jobcentres and expand mental health services across the country.”
