1 in 6 young adults not in employment, education or training: EU

On the occasion of World Youth Skills Day, 15 July, Eurostat released some concerning  figures on the state of youth in Europe in terms of their employment, education and training  status.

According to the figures over one in six (17.6 %) of young adults aged 20 to 34 were neither in employment nor education and training (NEET) in 2020 in the European Union (EU), an increase of 1.2 percentage points over 2019.

In Greece among young adults aged 20-34, about 20% of men and just over 30% of women find themselves in neither employment, education or training whilst in Cyprus the data shows just over 10% men and just under 20% of women.

The lowest NEET rates were in the Czech Republic (5.6 % of young men) and in the Netherlands (9.5 % of young women). In contrast, the highest NEET rates were recorded in Italy for both men and women, at 24.0 % and 35.0 % respectively.

In 2020, the share of women not in employment, education or training was higher in every country as compared to men. There were eight EU Member States where the proportion of young female NEETs was at least 10.0% higher than the corresponding share for young men.

Among these, the difference between the sexes was within the range of 10.5-14.7% in Bulgaria, Italy, Estonia and Poland, rising to 17.5-24.2% in Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic. The lowest gender gaps were found in Portugal (0.6%), Lithuania (1.0%), Luxembourg (1.6%) and Sweden (1.8%).

READ: Greece, Cyprus have amongst lowest adult learning participation in Europe