Society at a Glance 2016

OECD

• Publisher: OECD
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9789264261532
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Chapter 1. The NEET challenge: What can be done for jobless and disengaged youth?1

Introduction

Young people today struggle in the labour market in spite of being the most highly educated generation in history. Unemployment is generally higher among young people than prime age adults, and those who do work tend to have poorer-quality jobs and are much more likely to be on temporary contracts or to earn low wages than older workers.

The Great Recession hit young people particularly hard and, as the recovery has been jobless in many countries, many young people have not seen their situation improve since. This chapter adopts a wide definition of youth, including all 15-29 year-olds, to allow for the fact that young people remain in education for longer, and to include the beginning of family formation. The number of 15-to-29 year-olds not in employment, education or training (NEETs) remains higher than before the onset of the crisis in nearly all OECD countries – 40.0 million in 2015.2 The most vulnerable – those with a poor education, ill health or social problems, and/or a migrant background – are most likely to find themselves without work, quality education or training opportunities. Over two-thirds of all NEETs (28 million young people across the OECD) are inactive, i.e. not even looking for work.

This situation has significant social, political and economic consequences. In the absence of adequate public support, declining household incomes increase the risk of poverty. They may force young people and their families to cut down on essential expenditure on food, housing and health care, so damaging their well-being and health. Periods of inactivity and unemployment in early adulthood have also been shown to have lasting negative effects on future employment prospects and earnings (OECD, 2015a). The growing uncertainty with which young people grapple at the outset of their careers can also keep them from reaching traditional markers of adulthood – securing a steady job is often associated with the decision to leave the parental home and is typically a prerequisite for starting a family. In the long term, inactivity and unemployment can generate isolation and disengagement from society, with adverse consequences for social outcomes such as health, fertility and trust, and can eventually lead to crime (Carcillo et al., 2015).

The social and labour market integration of young people is therefore a policy priority for OECD governments. This chapter takes stock of the current labour market situation of young people, profiles those who are out of employment, education or training, and reviews approaches and policies that OECD countries have adopted to improve youth employment and educational outcomes. It addresses the following sets of questions:

• How have young people fared during the Great Recession, and which young people were most affected by the large-scale destruction of jobs? To answer these questions, the first section of this chapter looks at how youth employment rates have evolved across the OECD and at the educational attainment of those who have lost their jobs. Many young people go to school or study and do not participate in the labour market, which makes employment and unemployment rates incomplete measures of the labour market situation of young people. The analysis therefore specifically focuses on NEETs and how their numbers evolved throughout the economic crisis.
• Who are the NEETs, and for how long do they typically remain out of employment, education and training? Young people who are unemployed or inactive differ greatly in personal characteristics, family background, and the barriers to their securing a place in education or work. Identifying NEETs has important implications for the type of support they need if they are to (re)gain self-sufficiency. The second section profiles NEETs from country to country in order to identify principal risk factors as well as obstacles to re-integration:
  • What share of NEETs are early school leavers, and what proportion lack the literacy or numeracy skills required for work or training?
  • Is there an important gender gap in unemployment or inactivity, and what are its likely drivers?
  • And to what extent are youth from more disadvantaged families at a greater risk of being NEET?
  The negative long-term consequences of joblessness are likely to be greatest for young people who remain NEET for long periods. The third section therefore also studies for how long young people remain out of education, employment and training and seeks to identify factors that put them at risk of being long-term NEETs.
• What forms of income support are available to low-income young people, and how successful are they at preventing youth poverty? A consequence of the difficult labour market situation for young people is that a growing share of them struggle to be self-sufficient. Although income support can help absorb severe earnings losses and ensure a decent standard of living, it is often less generous and more difficult to access for young people. The third section looks at income support for young people:
  • What proportion of young people receive unemployment or disability benefits, social assistance, or other types of cash benefits, and how have their numbers developed over the crisis and its aftermath?
  • What share of unemployed young people are covered by some form of income support?
  • What are the implications for the incomes of young people – and the incidence of youth poverty?
• What policies and programmes can rise to the NEET challenge? Cross-country analysis of NEETs reveals various barriers to their entering education or employment. Because low educational attainment is such an important risk factor, the final section examines what governments can do to ensure that all young people complete their upper-secondary education:
  • What measures heighten the chances of spotting students at risk of dropping out of school and giving them support they need?
  • How can attractive vocational education and training pathways – particularly quality apprenticeships – contribute to provid...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Legal and rights
• Foreword
• Acronyms and conventional signs
• Executive summary
• Chapter 1. The NEET challenge: What can be done for jobless and disengaged youth?
• Chapter 2. Interpreting OECD social indicators
• Chapter 3. General context indicators
• Chapter 4. Self-sufficiency indicators
• Chapter 5. Equity indicators
• Chapter 6. Health indicators
• Chapter 7. Social cohesion indicators
• About the OECD