NEETs – 10.2 million aged 16 to 29 in US, 13.4 million of the 15 to 29 in EU are neither working nor learning

In 2015, there were nearly 10.2 million NEETS ages 16 to 29 in the U.S., or 16.9% of that age bracket’s total population, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That represents a modest decline over recent years: In 2013, there were just over 11 million NEETs in the U.S., representing 18.5% of the 16-to-29 population, according to our analysis.

The European Union also saw a surge in its NEET population during and after the financial crisis. (The EU’s statistical agency, Eurostat, sets the lower age bound of NEETs at 15 instead of 16.) In 2014, the most recent year for which data are available, 15.4% of the 15-to-29 population – or roughly 13.4 million young people across the EU – were neither employed nor in school or other training, a rate that has changed little since 2010. As in the U.S., more NEETs were young women (55% of the total) than young men (45%).

The NEET rate varies considerably among the EU’s 28 member nations: Those with the highest rates were in struggling southern Europe, led by Greece and Italy; more than a quarter of 15- to 29-year-olds in those countries were NEETs (26.7% and 26.2%, respectively). Luxembourg (6.5%) and Denmark (7.3%) had the lowest NEET rates in the EU.The NEET rate trends in the largest EU economies vary considerably, both with each other and with the pattern observed in the U.S. In Germany, for example, the NEET rate peaked in 2005 and has gradually declined ever since; in Italy, by contrast, its already high rate began rising higher in 2008 and, as of 2014, had yet to stop. The U.K.’s NEET rate fell sharply in the mid-2000s, jumped in 2007 and peaked in 2011, falling somewhat since. And France’s rate has been remarkably stable, varying only between 12.8% and 15.1% over the entire 2000-2014 period examined.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Millions of US, EU youth are neither working nor learning | Pew Research Center