Unemployment: Young People

(asked on 29th January 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of young people are not in education, employment or training aged 16, 17, 18 and 19 to 24 in (i) Tower Hamlets, (ii) England and (iii) the UK.


Answered by
 Portrait
Nick Boles
This question was answered on 3rd February 2015

There are several data sources that provide estimates for 16 to 24 year olds who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), which differ in terms of their geographical coverage, age range, timing and methodology. No single source can provide the information requested in its entirety.

The Department for Education’s definitive estimates of the proportion of academic age 16 to 18 year olds who are NEET in England are published annually in the Statistical First Release (SFR) “Participation in education, training and employment, age 16 to 18”, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/participation-in-education-training-and-employment-age-16-to-18

The latest estimates from this SFR, relating to the end of 2013, are shown in the table below.

DfE Official Participation Statistics - NEET by academic age, end 2013

16

17

18

16-18

England

4.0%

6.1%

12.5%

7.6%

The Department also publishes estimates of the proportion of academic age 16-18 year olds who are NEET in each English local authority using data provided by local authorities from their Client Caseload Information Systems (CCIS). The published data is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-data-by-local-authority-2012-16-to-18-year-olds-not-in-education-employment-or-training

The data coverage and methodology differs from the official national estimates, so the figures are not directly comparable with the SFR figures for England, but it is possible to generate an estimate for England for comparison by aggregating the local authority data. The figures for Tower Hamlets and the aggregated figure for England based on the latest published data, for November 2013 to January 2014, is shown in the table below.

Local Authority CCIS data - NEET by academic age, end 2013 (Nov 2013 - Jan 2014 average)

16

17

18

16-18

Tower Hamlets

2.3%

4.9%

6.8%

4.6%

England (aggregated)

2.5%

5.0%

8.7%

5.3%

For estimates of the proportion of 19-24 year olds NEET, and for 16-24 year olds as a whole in England, the Department publishes quarterly estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The latest data is published at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/neet-statistics-quarterly-brief-july-to-september-2014

For estimates of NEET in the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes figures each quarter which are also based on the LFS. The latest estimates are published at the following link:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/young-people-not-in-education--employment-or-training--neets-/november-2014/stb---young-people-not-in-education--employment--training--neet----november-2014.html

The ONS estimates of young people NEET in the UK are not directly comparable with estimates published by DfE for England, because they relate to the actual age of the respondent at the time of the survey (rather than academic age) and are seasonally adjusted.

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