Insee Focus · January 2023 · n° 285

After a peak due to the health crisis, the share of young people neither in employment, nor in education, nor in training started to decrease again

In 2021, 12.8% of young people aged 15 to 29 in France were neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET), slightly less than the EU average (13.1%). This proportion was low before the age of 18, but increased with age to reach 18.3% at age 24. Before the age of 25, young men were more likely to be NEET than women, but the situation was reversed thereafter. After a peak in 2020 due to the health crisis, the NEET share started to decrease again and was, in the summer of 2022, at 11.6%, 0.7 point below its level of end of 2019.

The NEET situation most often corresponds to a situation that has been suffered, particularly the unemployed persons who cannot find a job or the inactive who often face personal constraints, such as childcare or a deteriorated state of health.