Huge fall in number of young people not in work or training

The number of young people not in education, employment or training has fallen by over 100,000 in the past year, new figures have shown.

There were 848,000 young people aged from 16 to 24 classed as Neets in the three months to September, a decrease of 74,000 from April to June and down 106,000 from a year earlier.

A total of 11.7% young people were Neet, down by 1% over the previous quarter and by 1.3% from a year earlier.

Just under half of all young people in the UK who were Neet were looking for work and so were classed as unemployed.

The rest were either not looking for work or not available for work, so classified as economically inactive, said the Office for National Statistics.

Kirstie Donnelly, managing director of City & Guilds, said: "It's positive to see a fall in Neets, and I can imagine this will come as welcome news for the Government ahead of their Comprehensive Spending Review next week.

"However, the reality is that more than 11% of young people are still out of work and not in education or training, a figure which is still far too high for us to relax.

"We still need to see a clear strategy from Government, particularly if funding is in jeopardy, to prepare young people for the workplace and enable them to develop the necessary skills they need for the future."