Can we talk about NEETs?

[MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack]

Sorry if there's a thread already and I've missed it. But I want to talk about NEETs.

Apparently, we are potentially going to have 1.25million young people not in employment, education or training by the early 2030s. This is quite an alarming number, and it feels like we're failing an entire generation - both the NEETs themselves, who don't seem to have very much going on in their lives that might give them a sense of satisfaction or achievement, but also their working peers who will presumably end up having to support them via the tax system.

I really don't want this to be a thread with lots of judgement or criticism of these young people - it seems to me that we must have failed them somehow as a society. I also want to steer clear of party politics if we can. But I really want to understand why we have so many young people in this position right now.

Does anyone have a child in this situation who would be willing to share why they find themselves in this position? What are the barriers to them studying or getting at least a part time job? Are they happy with how things are right now? Are they trying to change their situation? What do they actually do all day? Are they surrounded by friends who are in the same position? What do they do about money? And what do you feel about the whole situation as a parent?

If anyone is willing to share, I really hope we can avoid a pile-on in which the young people and/or their parents are subjected to a character assassination. I would like an honest and frank exchange of views and experiences because I do genuinely want to understand the root causes of this issue, but if it descends into blame and fingerpointing, then the whole conversation will get derailed.

For full disclosure, I do have a dc in the middle of the 16-24 age group, but neither she nor any of her friends fall into this category.

Generally, poorer areas tend to have a high crime rates AND NEETs rates, but I’ll see if I can find some actual data.

Tin hat on here....but here goes.

A group of friends have been having this conversation for a while and I do wonder if part of it's down to the age of retirement being rased, so will continue to happen.

Retail is only one small part....I live in a village on the edge of a town where the same people that would have retired at 60/65 are still in jobs that would have become available years ago.

I also once a week visit larger supermarkets, it's the same there.
Our high street has changed so much with more resturants and eateries opening but the age of the the staff are mainly the older generation.

Two New budget supermarket within reach have opened recently, again in both staff are mid to retirement aged.

It's probably the same across the board with many many different enterprises not just shop staff.

If they keep pushing the age of retirement up those jobs are not becoming available for younger family members, as had been the case at times, or anyone else to step into.

I was sitting in the car this morning as Milburn was talking about this on the radio, Governments can come up with excuses all they want but reality is they can't have it both ways.

We've been in a senario for a few years now of It's either jobs for school/university leaver or pensioners, so I don't know why it's just being talked about.

The results show that there is a higher probability for young people who live in high Crime Score areas to become NEETs in comparison to those who live in areas with low Crime Score after controlling for individual, family, school and peer group characteristics. On a second strand of analysis, I employ counterfactual models, propensity score matching and sensitivity analysis. The findings suggest that when two groups of children with identical observed characteristics at the age 13/14 experience di↵erent neighbourhood contexts, those who grow up in high Crime Score areas are more likely to become NEETs in comparison to those who grow up in low Crime Score areas.

This is terrible, it's wholly understandable work is difficult. The lack of mental health support is disgusting. 💐

'1 in 3 of my peers have/had similar thoughts or attempts on their life'- can I ask...do you think these mainly stem from ND? Or trauma? Or something else?

I think there are reasons ND is more common in younger Gens. Why would trauma be more common ? We need to find out why, and help.

That sounds likely and needs to be addressed. Loads of these people aren't just delicate snowflakes, they're dealing with serious problems and clearly one of those is the outside world being too dangerous.

Don’t forget ‘Doctors’ 😆

My child is 17 and NEET. This is due to burnout at the end of Y10, onset of severe OCD and has not yet recovered to go back to college. We're hoping he will go in September but it's not 100% certain.

To those posters bashing DofE or accusing it if being middle class - juvenile prisons run DofE courses and probation officers help facilitate on the outside.
It's great for kids who don't necessarily have a home life that includes positive socialising or role models. They learn skills, meet people who are good role models and have to complete the written work, be organised etc. Once completed there's an enormous sense of accomplishment, a rarity for these underprivileged kids.
Don't knock DofE, it beats PlayStation hands down.

Not sure that trauma is more common necessarily, rather than people/children being kept track of, and their outcomes analysed.

But the narrative with Brexit is exactly this. 10 years on, every single thread has posts about it is all the fault of Brexit. No looking for solutions or opportunities, no trying to resolve our issues. Same with policy, always blame previous government or some 3rd Party, never focus on what we need to do now. Same with every event in life at the moment blame someone else and get compo, blame the council, blame social services. It's never ending of finding someone or something to blame. Listen to the news anyday and see how everything is framed around finding fault and identifying who to blame. It's no wonder our children do this. It's endemic in our society.

Why would women find it easier to get retail/hospitality, I wonder?

Good list of points...

I am sorry but your post does sounds very judgy. My two sons now 21 and 24 had a lot of mental health issues. My youngest was in the NEET category for a while mainly because he had to wait 5 years for diagnosis and treatment and for a while was close to suicide with very disturbing thoughts. He was sacked from a job for having 1 extra day off sick when he was really unwell , we settled out of court very close to the tribunal as it was obvious ,finally to them they would lose.

After this it took him two years to find a job, partly as he was still unwell, but the whole experience was awful endless applications to be turned down by bots, Exploitative employers using free trail shifts to multiple young people for free Labour. He finally got a job and has been there 2 years and also proper medical care. Last year he started a degree course.
The difference is we live in a relatively well off area, I was able to support him financially and emotionally and he lives rent free in a house I inherited. I suggest that many others have none of these things and this is the issue. I would also point out that both had a very traumatic time at school.

My DS was in a similar position - he’d done some part time work while at college, but it took him months, 100 applications and only 2 interviews, before he got a job. A number of his friends who went to uni are still looking for work, almost a year later. And these are intelligent, capable and personable young people. It’s a terrible situation.

In the future, people with live entirely in virtual reality and won't even need a body, let alone a job.

I don't get the bit that wages are expensive the min wage is barely enough to live on

It's a tricky time for young people for lot's of reasons. I've been fortunate as I only have 1 child & I've been very invested/pushy/ a helicopter parent or whatever anyone wants to call me & supported him to find decent work experience & ensuring he found himself a weekend job aged 16 (& drove the almost 1 hour round trip to get him there & back for each shift). I've made it clear to him from a young age that doing nothing is not an option available to him but I've also been very supportive as I just cannot bare to see him wasting his time gaming & bumming around. His dad & I work hard & I come from a family of wasters on benefits & I just cannot let this happen.

Not necessarily - have you seen the jobs market for youngsters!?
thanks to minimum wage and NI rises they are so expensive to employ, that a massive number of “first job” and PT employment has just disappeared. It’s incredibly demoralising when they've done everything right, worked hard to get good exam results and then there still isn't a job there - both for graduates and more pedestrian jobs.
When I was 18 and doing a gap year I had my pick of jobs in the 1990’s. That is not the case today.

But yes to everything else - too much time online, SM, bad diets.
Covid Lockdowns have caused so much damage too. It’s almost like the few weeks you have to socialise a puppy - well it seems those teenage years are critical for teenage soft social skills too!

And the hidden army of heroic young carers who care for ill or disabled parents or siblings in dysfunctional families, often at great personal cost to themselves and their future opportunities. They save the taxpayers a fortune. Maybe we could invest some of the savings in their future.

My son tried college at 16 and I got a few calls saying he wasn't coping. He left after a few weeks but did manage the Price's Trust course a couple of year ago, as it was short and undemanding but apart from that he's not done anything. He's 19 now.
He was signed off by the GP after I reached out for help for him, due to very risky behaviour and police attending a few times. He had a knife and wanted to cut himself. He's now LCWRA and to be honest it's horrible. We feel like prisoners as he can't be left alone in the house. He doesn't want any social services support

My daughter is twenty one , she's worked since she was sixteen, lost her last job due to migraines, they didn't make any adjustments for her in the office. They easily could of. She's been out of work for six months now. She applies for lots of jobs that she has some experience in and doesn't often get interviews. She's charming, bright and confident. She wants a job and to move out.

It’s not just the wages it’s NI and often ,pension contributions too. Not an excuse for the big corporation, but for smaller businesses it can be a massive struggle. plus, If you can get an experienced worker, with a good track record , for the same amount of money , why would you risk it for a fresh out of uni person, or someone who dropped out at 16?

What adjustments would’ve been needed? How often were they?

What does he say about it?

I applaud you. It’s effort getting them to make an effort. But you’ll reap the rewards later on and for much longer.

I think it's good for there to be more opportunities for older people to work if they want to, especially as life expectancy has increased and the population is aging overall.

But this definitely needs to be balanced with a need to employ younger people. Imo we need to prioritise using human labour, not robots.