UK has wealthy Europe’s ‘third-highest’ rate of young adults not in work or study

Britain has the third-highest rate of young people not in work or education among Europe’s richest countries because of rising ill-health and a failing system of benefits and job support, a report has warned.

The Resolution Foundation thinktank said the UK was facing a “crisis” in youth jobs amid a dramatic rise in the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training (Neets) to almost 1 million – the highest level in more than a decade.

It said a “quartet of causes” had led the UK to lose ground against many of its international peers, led by a rise in ill-health among young people, weak vocational education, a hands-off benefits system and a deteriorating jobs market.

Against a backdrop of growing alarm in government about the rise in youth unemployment in the UK, Resolution Foundation said the Neet rate for 18- to 24-year-olds had jumped from 13% in 2019 to 15% in 2025, leaving the UK with 900,000 Neets.

Only Italy and Lithuania had a higher rate out of 22 EU members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) analysed in the report. While some other European countries, including Turkey and Romania, have higher rates, young people in Britain were more likely to be Neet than in comparable rich economies, with a rate higher than that of Germany and Denmark, and more than three times the rate in the Netherlands.

The report comes as Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary, explores options for tackling the rise in youth unemployment for a government-commissioned review. Milburn is expected to publish the initial findings of his report later next month.

Ministers have faced sharp criticism from business leaders for driving up UK employment costs, after chancellor Rachel Reeves’s £25bn rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs), as well as increases in the minimum wage and Labour’s measures to strengthen workplace rights.

The Resolution Foundation said a weaker jobs market had contributed to just over half of the recent rise in Britain’s Neet rate since 2019. However, it said youth unemployment was not unusually high compared with previous economic downturns, suggesting that a lack of job availability due to recent tax changes and minimum wage rises was not the only cause.

The thinktank said the remaining increase was explained by rising ill-health, amid a broader increase in young people reporting health conditions – primarily led by a rise in issues with mental health.