14,000 more young people not in education, employment or training

The number of young people not in education, employment or training has increased by 14,000 to 857,000, new figures show.

The so-called NEET total for 16 to 24-year-olds is up by 3,000 on a year ago, said the Office for National Statistics.

The percentage of young people in the UK who were NEET in the quarter to September was 11.9%, up 0.2% from April to June 2016 and by the same figure from a year earlier.

Nearly half of all young people in the UK who were NEET were looking for work and available for work and so were classed as unemployed.

The rest were either not looking for work and/or not available for work and therefore classified as economically inactive.