Really interesting report on NEETs. What do you think happens next?

[SomedayIllBeSaturdayNight]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/23/uk-young-people-workplace-anxiety-alan-milburn

Such an interesting report by Alan Millburn in why the UK has so many young NEETs.

' “[Young people] 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.”

Does this ring true to you? And what are the next few years going to look like?

I personally can't see any reason for the government not to ban social media for under 16s in this context.

Sometimes , the level of anxiety , depression and stress is not normal and it CAN be debilitating.That’s the whole point. While staying in bed doesn’t help in those cases, “you’re fine, off you pop” doesn’t either.

Maybe. But we need to explore why it is that British NT teens are so much more anxious and depressed than teens in countries who have nothing. I am.not talking about teens with autism or severe ADHD. I am talking about NT teens.

Work helps with anxiety and depression. Staying in your bedroom will only make everything worse. I think we need more " off you pop" frankly.

I'm not disputing what your saying but do you have any actual figures? And are all the figures from different countries calculated in the same way?

No wonder they're bloody anxious.

Its shit being young now.

It depends what’s driving the anxiety and what level it is though, whether “off you pop” will work or not work, or worse , exacerbates things.

Severe bullying, witnessing or being victim of violence /sexual violence in the classroom/school , which are an every day occurrence for some kids, as an example, can’t be fixed with an “off you pop” even if the kid is NT.

Personally, I refuse to send this message to my kids. Every generation has challenges, and my parents had it far harder than my kids.

What do you mean countries who have nothing? Are you comparing British teenagers with teenagers in a 3rd world country? What's the use of that comparison? Should we say to teenagers who cant access permanent employment or training "Oh at least you aren't scavenging for food"...what's that going to achieve??

Do you ever complain of a headache? Well at least you haven't got a brain tumour.
Makes you feel much better, doesn't it??

Sheesh.

You do you Jane.

Refusing to see this generations challenges will do yourself no favours in the long run.

But how do we end up with these people who can’t make eye contact, interact, add up etc.? They are spending at least 11 years at school and they can’t add up?! I agree with you that no-one is going to hire them, but how do we make sure young people don’t end up in this category?

I am just saying: it is ridiculous that 1 m teens can't work or study. They can't all have debilitating conditions.

We already don't have enough tax payers and net migration is down, because we are now making it tough for qualified intelligent taxpaying immigrants to stay here.

As I said, DS is hopefully going to be working in a firm where nearly everybody is non-British, mostly Asian, and absolutely seething with drive and ambition. Good for them. They deserve all the jobs.

We already don't have enough tax payers and net migration is down, because we are now making it tough for qualified intelligent taxpaying immigrants to stay here.

We have an ageing population and immigration isn’t particularly popular.

My DD may end up becoming a NEET. She is academically capable but autistic, has acute social anxiety and has suffered from years of finding it hard to be in the school environment. She has missed lots of school because of her difficulties but should still end up with 5s at GCSE. Would have been much higher if she had been able to attend school.

What I've found through my research is that options for 16-18 year old are limited and inflexible, especially in my area. There're schools with sixth-forms which do A-levels and have high entry requirements. Or there are a couple of large FE colleges which do only vocational courses such as beauty, electronics, construction etc which involve a mixture of study and workplace settings. My daughter won't be able to access either of these. She would do better in a college-tyoe environment but with academic learning. She wants to go to university. She can't be the only young person who will under-perform in their GCSEs and then find other pathways closed off to them.

Out of interest, I looked into apprenticeships for 16 year olds and there was nothing. I have looked into volunteering in charity shops to get some kind of experience but our local shops won't take anyone under 18.

Nor is it the answer as immigrants also age, funnily enough.

They dont. It says a quarter have long term conditions.

They dont. It says a quarter have long term conditions.

Its like people dont even read the articles 😆

Absolutely. All these grown men whinging about immigrants ‘taking their jobs’ like they’re even applying for them!

Personally, I am in favour of controlled immigration. If 1 m teens can't or don't want to work, let's import those who want to and can pay taxes.

That still leaves three-quarter who don't.

Are we really saying that this level of anxiety and stress at going into a workplace is justifiable or sustainable?

I would go so far as to say young people aren't even part of society anymore. Where is their space? Where is their slice of the economy? (Tumbleweed)

Spending on supporting young people is now pretty much the equivalent of spending on foreign aid, they're not part of the country.

1m NEETs isn’t actually a huge change to normal. The figure was often higher in the years 2005-2015

Do some think in the past it used to be 50k NEETs or something?

It makes sense in strained economic times the figures would increase.

Part of the reason they're not working or learning is that they're isn't much point anymore. Housing is now more than several times the average salary, the average salary takes most people years to get to. Many never do, not because of their own failings but because there simply aren't even enough jobs to go around.

These young people probably see their own parents struggle by just to rent/ have their meagre incomes topped up by UC/ PIP and just rightfully think 'what is the fucking point?'.

Because some children aren’t born with the ability to add up or do many other things.It’s that simple. Significant learning disabilities are a thing you know. Even in mainstream schools. You can’t educate a disability out of someone. We have 8 yos who are still non verbal, in nappies, have no awareness and very limited understanding . They are basically big (younger side) toddlers.Even if something suddenly clicked tomorrow, they will still be years behind their peers.

What if their teen kids also don’t want to work or pay taxes? Is it right that a cheap ‘foreign’ labour force should be highly taxed to prop up lazy, indulgent native Brits who see them as nothing more than a cash cow? Plus immigrants also get old, need medical care. They’re not robots. Using immigration to prop this up is a tried and tested Ponzi scheme

Why ARE there so many non verbal autistic kids all of a sudden? Did anyone know any growing up? I didn’t. And this was long after the ‘institutions’ had closed.

Fair. I guess I come from a culture where renting is not seen as terrible. DC will be housesharing in London for the forseeable future. Though I will try to help them with house deposits, and I do not charge them a penny of rent. That's my support with their special challenges.

They see all this- hard as it is- as better than going on benefits which they don't need. In my family, benefits are for those who can't work or on minimum wage. Not for those who can and should work.