One in eight young people in the UK are now not in education, employment or training, according to government figures that have prompted an official review into what the government’s jobs adviser describes as a generation “rewired” by smartphones and social media.
The proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds classified as Neet – not in education, employment or training – has risen to 12.8%, with 957,000 individuals in that category as of the final quarter of 2025. That represents an increase of more than 200,000 since 2022, and a figure not seen in over a decade. The UK now has the third-highest Neet rate among Europe’s wealthiest countries, behind only Italy and Lithuania, and is significantly above the OECD average of 10.7%.
The anxious generation
Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary commissioned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last November to examine the crisis, will publish his interim report next week. In it, he is expected to argue that Britain is facing “an economic catastrophe” unless businesses adapt to the needs of a cohort he describes not as snowflakes but as “an anxious generation”.
“They are not snowflakes. People say it’s a soft generation. My view unequivocally is that it isn’t. It is an anxious generation,” Milburn told the Times. He warned: “The system is trapping people in worklessness rather than enabling them into work. We’re at a risk of just writing a whole generation off.”
Milburn’s report will state that young people today are “different, not worse, not lazier, not less intelligent. They have grown up in a digital world that has rewired how they communicate, form relationships and manage stress. They have fewer experiences of workplaces and they present with higher levels of anxiety and depression.”
The scale of the Neet crisis
The numbers paint a stark picture. More than half of the UK’s 946,000 Neets have never worked, and a quarter are classed as unable to work due to long-term sickness or disability. Of those, 43% say mental health problems are the primary reason they cannot work – up sharply from 24% in 2011. The economic inactivity rate among 16- to 24-year-olds has also risen, with 57% of Neets now economically inactive, meaning they are not working and not looking for work.
Internationally, the UK has roughly double the proportion of Neets as Japan or Ireland, and three times as many as the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, just 5.8% of young people are Neet, largely due to robust vocational training systems. By contrast, only 22% of young people in the UK are in vocational education, compared with 35% in countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. The gap between the UK and comparable economies, experts note, is driven by lower education participation rates rather than lower employment.
The long-term consequences are severe. Research shows that experiencing unemployment under the age of 23 can lead to lower wages even two decades later, a phenomenon known as “long-term scarring”. The post-pandemic surge in Neet levels is estimated to have cost the UK economy £20 billion in lost GDP. The cost of living crisis is compounding the problem: 90% of young people worry about their ability to earn enough to support themselves, according to survey data.
Gender trends are also shifting. While historically more women than men were Neet, recent figures show a rise in male inactivity, with almost 60% of male Neets now classed as inactive – a figure that has risen by about 45% since 2019.
Social media and mental health: the hidden driver
At the heart of the crisis, Milburn’s review is expected to identify a “rising tide of mental ill-health, anxiety, depression [and] neurodiversity” as a central driver of high economic inactivity. The influence of social media on young people’s mental health is singled out for particular attention.
“This is a bedroom generation,” Milburn told the Times. “They are sort of living in their bedrooms. They are on all the time, they’re never off. [Social media] is leading to some evidence of functional impairment, changing their sleep patterns, concentration levels. That is having an impact on their ability to work.”
The statistics are striking. Some 91% of 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK use social media daily. Research links heavy use to increased rates of anxiety, depression, loneliness and poor body image. A study found that adults who posted on social media daily had more mental health problems than those who never posted. “Comparison culture” – where curated online lives create unrealistic expectations – is a significant concern, along with cyberbullying, which affects approximately one in five young people in the UK.
The mental health toll is also visible in the workplace. Work-related stress, depression or anxiety affected an estimated 964,000 workers in Great Britain in 2024/25, with mental health conditions accounting for 52% of all work-related ill health cases. Younger workers report feeling stressed for an average of 11.3 days per month, and 35% of 18- to 24-year-olds in employment reported needing time off work due to poor mental health or stress. Among young people with a probable mental health condition, sleep disruption affects 85% of those aged 8–16 and 96% of those aged 17–23.
Campaigners point out that the rise in mental health issues is disproportionately affecting young men, with almost 60% of male Neets now inactive – a figure that has climbed from around 45% in 2019.
Proposed solutions: business adaptation, education reform and social media restrictions
Milburn’s report will call on businesses to adapt by offering more flexibility and mental health support for young people, including a “high level of pastoral care” for those experiencing mental distress. He is expected to argue that the Neet cohort could actually present a solution for British businesses struggling to find skilled labour amid falling immigration. Figures released on Thursday showed net migration to the UK dropped to 171,000 last year, down sharply from a peak of 891,000 in 2022, a decline attributed to stricter visa rules. Employers cite a shortage of UK workers with the required experience as a primary reason for hiring from outside Europe.
But the education system itself is also under scrutiny. Peter Hyman, a former headteacher and adviser to both Tony Blair and Keir Starmer, told the Guardian that schools were becoming a “pipeline to worklessness” and called for radical change, including a ban on social media for under-16s. The UK’s low participation in vocational education is a particular weakness; apprenticeships have fallen by nearly 40% over the last decade, reducing pathways for those not pursuing university degrees. The system is struggling to provide the digital skills employers increasingly expect.
The benefits system is also criticised. The number of 18- to 24-year-old benefit recipients with no work search requirements has increased significantly since 2019, and the state is spending 25 times more on welfare for young people than on measures to get them into jobs. Prime Minister Starmer has indicated a push for welfare reform, acknowledging that the current system may be trapping people in poverty and worklessness.
Milburn’s report will recommend that businesses adapt their offerings to attract young people who have been shaped by a digital world. “The system is trapping people in worklessness rather than enabling them into work,” he said. “We’re at a risk of just writing a whole generation off.”