Istat: ‘By 2025, the proportion of NEETs will fall to 13.3 per cent, with the sharpest decline in the South’

In 2025, the employment rate for recent school leavers rises to 62.9 per cent (+2.3 percentage points compared with 2024) and that for recent university graduates to 78.7 per cent (+1.4 percentage points); these figures refer to 20–34-year-olds who are no longer in education or training and who obtained their qualification at least one year ago but no more than three years ago. This is according to Istat’s annual report on educational attainment and employment outcomes.

The gap between Italia and the rest of Europe in terms of employment rates for the population aged between 25 and 64 is narrowing across all levels of education. The gap with the EU-27 average stands at 2.8 percentage points for those with tertiary qualifications (3.1 percentage points in 2024), 3.9 for those with upper secondary qualifications (4.3) and 2.9 for those with lower secondary qualifications (4.1). In 2025, 11.7 per cent of employees aged between 25 and 64 are on fixed-term contracts, a figure down from 12.6 per cent in 2024. Among 25–34-year-olds, the proportion reaches 21.8 per cent, despite a significant decline over the past year (-2.1 percentage points), which was more pronounced among those with medium-to-high educational qualifications (-2.5 and -1.9 percentage points). The proportion of fixed-term contracts amongst all young employees is lowest (19.4 per cent) amongst those with upper secondary qualifications, whilst it stands at 24.6 per cent amongst those with lower qualifications and 24.2 per cent amongst those with tertiary qualifications.

According to Istat, the proportion of young people aged 15–29 who are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEETs) has fallen to 13.3 per cent (-1.9 percentage points compared with 2024), narrowing the gap with Europe (2.3 percentage points, down from 4.1 in 2024). The sharpest decline was recorded in the South (-3.1 percentage points). Since 2021, the phenomenon has decreased significantly, narrowing the gap with Europe: the gap has fallen from 10 points in 2021 to 2.3 points in 2025 (the EU-27 average stands at 11.0 per cent). The Italian figure is now close to that of France (12.7 per cent), but still higher than that of Spain (11.5 per cent) and Germany (9.5 per cent). NEETs constitute a highly diverse group in terms of educational attainment: 34.1 per cent have at most a lower secondary qualification, 54.1 per cent hold a secondary school leaving certificate, and 11.8 per cent have a tertiary qualification. They are mainly young people aged between 25 and 29 (50.8 per cent of NEETs), and the phenomenon is particularly widespread amongst women – especially mothers – as well as amongst foreign nationals and residents of Southern Italy.