The issue of young people being Not in Employment, Education, and Training (NEET) is very challenging, at least for countries like Italy, which from 2014 to 2023 showed the highest rates across European countries. The causes of this outcome are known and mainly linked to the labour market conditions and education system characteristics (Pastore et al., 2021, 2022). Regarding the first aspect, Italy has high unemployment levels and a high intergenerational gap when comparing young people’s condition with their adult peers. From an institutional perspective, the organizations that should help young people find a job are underdeveloped and inefficient in the sense that they cannot provide adequate ad hoc services to help young people when they enter the labour market. Concerning education, the share of early school leavers is higher than the EU average (in 2022, in Italy, it was 11.5% against an EU-27 average of 9.7% for the age class 15-24) while the share of young people with a tertiary degree is still one of the lowest one, at the EU level (in the same year, 29.2% in Italy, against an EU average of 42.0%; only Romania performed worse, with 24.7%). The NEET phenomenon has been investigated mainly at the individual level, with the scope
The Italian NEETs after the COVID-19: What should we expect for the future? Different approaches to forecasts
De Luca, G.;Rocca ,A.;Mazzocchi P.;Quintano C.
2025-01-01
Abstract
The issue of young people being Not in Employment, Education, and Training (NEET) is very challenging, at least for countries like Italy, which from 2014 to 2023 showed the highest rates across European countries. The causes of this outcome are known and mainly linked to the labour market conditions and education system characteristics (Pastore et al., 2021, 2022). Regarding the first aspect, Italy has high unemployment levels and a high intergenerational gap when comparing young people’s condition with their adult peers. From an institutional perspective, the organizations that should help young people find a job are underdeveloped and inefficient in the sense that they cannot provide adequate ad hoc services to help young people when they enter the labour market. Concerning education, the share of early school leavers is higher than the EU average (in 2022, in Italy, it was 11.5% against an EU-27 average of 9.7% for the age class 15-24) while the share of young people with a tertiary degree is still one of the lowest one, at the EU level (in the same year, 29.2% in Italy, against an EU average of 42.0%; only Romania performed worse, with 24.7%). The NEET phenomenon has been investigated mainly at the individual level, with the scopeI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
