Graduates and young people not in education, employment or training: the figures

Universities UK recognises the importance of reducing the number of young people who are NEET, and the urgency with which this issue needs to be addressed. Universities can do more to support this aim, and stand ready to help implement the recommendations of the Young People and Work review. 

We are actively looking at how we can better support young people in finding sustained employment following their time at university. Our Future Jobs Roadmap aims to better match graduates’ skillsets with the skills needs of local and national employers, expand work-based learning at universities, and ensure graduates are as ready as they can be for the world of work. We are also working closely with the Association of Colleges (AoC) to ensure that universities and colleges are working effectively together to deliver a joined-up post-16 skills system. 

Universities are working with employers, colleges and schools to make sure young people have the skills and opportunities they need to get into work. 

Expanding work experience 

Universities are growing their work experience offer to boost graduate employability. Through the Future Jobs Roadmap, universities have set an ambition for all undergraduates to have access to meaningful work-based learning activities or placement experience by 2035, with an interim target of 50% by 2030. This work increasingly starts well before university, including work experience for 14–16-year-olds.  

Partnering with colleges to fill the “missing middle” 

The UK lags many developed nations in skills at Levels 4 and 5, the qualifications between A Levels and a full degree. Higher education providers are already responsible for around 3 in 10 entrants at Level 4–5 and are growing their partnerships with further education colleges to expand this provision, creating more routes into skilled jobs. 

Universities are growing opportunities for learners to study technical and vocational qualifications, including degree apprenticeships, with a significant proportion of learners enrolled on degrees, apprenticeships, HTQs and other courses that are technical or vocational (from nurses to engineers). 

We can look at this from two perspectives: the NEET population and the total 16—24 population. 

In 2025, 15.5% of the NEET population had a degree or equivalent as their highest qualification, compared with 21.4% who had A Levels or equivalent, according to the Young People and Work interim report. 

When considering the wider 16—24 population, the NEET rate among those with RQF Level 6 (degree equivalent) qualifications does appear generally to be higher than those with RQF Level 3 (A Level equivalent), according to the ONS. However, there are important considerations:

• Education journeys: A far higher proportion of young people with RQF Level 3 are still in education when compared to those with RQF Level 6 as their highest qualification, many of whom will be at the end of their educational journey and be looking to move into employment.  
  • For example, according to ONS data, 33% of young people aged 16—24 with RQF Level 3 as their highest level of qualification were classed as being in education in 2025, compared with 9% of those with RQF Level 6. 
• Age matters. The graduate (RQF Level 6) NEET rate tends to be higher than the RQF Level 3 rate among those aged 21–22, the age a lot of young people leave university, but lower among those aged 23–24 (see ‘Understanding the NEET figures’). 
• A Levels are not all of Level 3. RQF Level 3 includes A Levels and other qualifications at the same level. According to data from the ONS, in terms of numbers as opposed to rates, there are typically more people with RQF Level 3 as their highest qualification who are NEET when compared to those with RQF Level 6.  

The comparison is easy to misread because of three distinctions: 

• Rates, not numbers. Among some very limited age groups, graduates have a higher NEET rate than those with A Level-equivalent qualifications. This mostly reflects the short gap many graduates have between leaving university and starting work. That is not the same as there being more graduate NEETs overall. 
• Age matters. The graduate NEET rate tends to be higher among those aged 21–22, the age a lot of young people leave university and are still between finishing their course and starting their first job, but lower among those aged 23–24, once most have moved into work or further study (see ‘Understanding the NEET figures’). 
• A Levels are not all of Level 3. RQF Level 3 includes A Levels and other qualifications at the same level. Many young people whose highest qualification is Level 3 are still in education or training, so are not counted as NEET. 

The report’s figures aggregate data from each quarter of 2025. 

Of the NEET population in 2025, 15.5% had a degree as their highest level of qualification (or equivalent). 29.3% had GCSEs as their highest qualification, 21.4% had A Levels, 10.7% had another type of qualification, 2.3% had a higher education qualification (below degree level), while 18.1% had no qualifications. 

In 2025, 11.6% of graduates aged 21–24 were NEET, slightly down on 2024 (12.0%). 

More than half (57.5%) of those who were NEET in 2025 whose highest qualification was a ‘degree or higher education’ had been NEET for less than a year – a greater proportion than those with other types of highest qualifications (41.5% of those with A Levels or equivalent, 33.6% of those with GCSEs or equivalent, 17.7% with other qualifications, and 15.8% of those with no qualifications). 

The report also asked employers about the move from education into work. When considering the main challenges employers face when hiring young people, the most commonly cited challenge was a ‘lack of soft skills or work readiness’, cited by 42%. This chimes with findings presented in research conducted as part of UUK’s Future Jobs Roadmap, and underlines the role universities play in preparing students for the workplace. 

NEET rates by level of highest qualification (LFS)

Looking at the period from Q1 2022 to Q1 2026, among people aged 21–24 those with highest level of qualification at RQF Level 6 (equivalent to degree level) tend to have a higher NEET rate than those with RQF Level 3 (equivalent to A Levels). However, RQF Level 6 NEET rates tend to peak in Q3 each year (July to September), when many new graduates have just finished their courses and are entering the labour market, before falling away again as they find work. This means seasonality needs to be factored into any analysis NEET rates among 21–22-year-olds with RQF Level 3 were consistently lower than those with RQF Level 6. 

However, among 23–24-year-olds we see a different story, with NEET rates consistently lower among those with RQF Level 6. This perhaps indicates that while there may be an initial period when graduates are NEET following their time at university, over time their employment prospects are better than their peers with highest qualifications at lower levels. 

Youth Futures Foundation 

Recent analysis by the Youth Futures Foundation suggests that, since 2019, the NEET rate among young people with a degree has remained consistently lower than the rate for those with education below degree level. While graduates face challenges in the labour market, among those aged 22–24, the NEET rate for graduates is around 10.4%, which is around half of the NEET rate for non-graduates of the same age (22.5%). 

Since 2021, the NEET rate for graduates has increased by 1.8 percentage points, compared with 6.3 percentage points for non-graduates, an increase more than three times as large. Among NEET young people aged 22–24, around three quarters (76.5%) are non-graduates and just under a quarter are graduates.

According to the recent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report, ‘Off the Radar’, around 300,000 NEETs do not claim benefits, which means the benefit system has no contact with or information about them, and they fall outside the main routes for employment support through work coaches and Youth Guarantee initiatives. These people are known as ‘hidden NEETs’. 

Around half (54%) of hidden NEETs have a degree, similar to the share of young people in employment, education or training, and far higher than the 12% for NEETs who are on benefits. The IFS suggest hidden NEETs are therefore better placed to move into work, and many are likely to move into employment without government intervention. 

At least four-in-five hidden NEETs (82%) are actively looking for work, doing voluntary work or are in a transitional state (the latter includes just returned from university or travelling, about to go travelling or move abroad).  

Hidden NEETs aged 22–23 are also more likely and have a short NEET duration (75% are NEET less than a year vs 29%). 

According to data included in the OECD’s ‘Education at a Glance 2026’ report, in the United Kingdom, 16% of all 18- to 24-year-olds were NEET in 2025, a slight increase from 15% in 2015. For comparison, across OECD countries with available data for both years the respective figures were 13% in 2025 and 16% in 2015. 

This disparity with the OECD average appears to be driven by a lower rate of 18- to 24-year-olds in education in the UK (44% in 2025 compared with 55% among OECD countries with comparable data); the UK had a higher proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds in employment in 2025 when compared with OECD countries with comparable data (41% vs. 32%). 

In 2025, 91% of UK graduates aged 25 to 34 were in employment, compared to an average of 86% across OECD countries with available and comparable data. 

Most (88.3%) of first-degree graduates in 2023–24 were in either sustained employment, further study or both 5 years after graduation. This rate has remained broadly consistent since 2017–18. 

NEET: young people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training. 

Qualification levels: RQF Level 6 is equivalent to degree level, and is what we mean when we refer to ‘graduates’. RQF Level 3 is equivalent to A Levels and includes other qualifications at the same level. Sources group qualifications differently (‘degree’, ‘degree or higher education’, ‘RQF Level 6’), so figures are not always directly comparable across sources. 

Age bands: figures cover different age groups. For example, the 11.6% graduate NEET rate (Young People and Work) is for ages 21–24; the 10.4% rate (Youth Futures Foundation) is for ages 22–24. 

Comparison groups: the Youth Futures Foundation compares graduates with all non-graduates, while the LFS analysis compares RQF Level 6 with RQF Level 3 only. This is why graduate NEET rates can look lower in one and higher in the other.