The number of NEETs has halved in ten years, but there are still 1.2 million: the social cost is 24 billion

In our country, there are still 1.2 million young people aged between 15 and 29 who are neither in education nor in employment. Eurofound estimates the social cost of this at 24 billion euros, due to lost productivity and welfare costs. This is a worrying figure in absolute terms, even though there is a clear trend towards improvement. In the 15–29 age group, 13.3 per cent of young people were NEETs in 2025. This figure is half that of the 25.7 per cent recorded in 2015. There has also been an improvement compared with 2024, when the figure stood at 15.3 per cent. The data were presented and discussed in Milan at Intesa Sanpaolo’s Gioia 22 skyscraper by the bank (which in recent months announced over 13,000 new hires of young people), the Cariplo Foundation and the Walter Tobagi School of Journalism, and form part of the research ‘The NEET Situation: Data, Causes and Policies of a Declining Phenomenon’, carried out by students through qualitative interviews and analysis of various sources, including Istat, Eurostat, Inapp, and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies. Andrea Forghieri, Executive Director for Social Affairs at Intesa Sanpaolo, emphasises that ‘tackling the NEET phenomenon means focusing on skills, but also helping young people to regain self-awareness, confidence in their abilities and a sense of purpose for the future. Through the ‘Giovani e Lavoro’ programme, Intesa Sanpaolo has trained around 6,000 young people, 80 per cent of whom have secured stable employment. For us, it is essential to guide and support the younger generation, offering them practical tools and opportunities to shape their own path.”

In Italia, one in five young people aged between 25 and 29 are neither in education nor in employment and are classified as NEETs. The risk of joining the ranks of those in this situation increases with age. The closer one gets to the age of 30, the more difficult it becomes to overcome a combination of various social, economic and personal factors – such as an interrupted school or university education, a failed first job, or a prolonged job search. Gender plays a significant role: in 2025, the NEET rate among young women aged 15–29 stands at 14.9 per cent, compared with 11.8 per cent for men. The gap widens in subsequent age groups and is significantly linked to family responsibilities. When we talk about the NEET situation, we are not necessarily referring to people with low educational qualifications; this limbo generally begins when one finishes or drops out of school or university. In 2025, 15 per cent hold a school-leaving certificate, 12 per cent of school-leavers have completed lower secondary education, and 11.1 per cent hold a university degree: a university degree slightly reduces the incidence of this situation but does not eliminate it. What sets Italia apart within the European context is that, in our country, the relationship between NEET status and the degree of urbanisation is reversed.

On average across the European Union, the phenomenon affects rural areas most (12.2 per cent in 2025), followed by suburbs and medium-sized towns (11 per cent), and finally large cities (10.3 per cent). In Italia, the opposite is true: it is the large cities that have the highest incidence (14.2 per cent), followed by rural areas (12.9 per cent) and the suburbs (12.8 per cent).According to a study by INAPP last June, family circumstances also play a role in this situation. Having a low household income, compared with an average income, increases the risk. Having parents who were previously unemployed raises the risk by 17 per cent, whilst having parents with a low level of education doubles it. Having divorced parents increases the risk by 30 per cent. These factors often combine within the same personal history and lead to the NEET condition, which is not so much a matter of economic poverty as it is of disorientation, difficulty in making decisions, reduced self-esteem and the feeling of being stuck on a dead-end path. Among NEETs still living at home, around half have parents with no more than lower secondary education, whilst only one in ten has at least one parent with a university degree. In over half of the cases, at least one parent is in work, but in an unskilled job, whilst nearly three in ten young people live in households where neither parent is in employment.

The study identifies six profiles, some of which are difficult to pinpoint. These include young people with low levels of education and limited family resources, who are at risk of social exclusion; graduates with high expectations, who continue to seek work in line with their qualifications; students who have dropped out of their studies; discouraged individuals; those in the informal or precarious labour market, which offers a minimal level of financial independence without leading to a stable professional position, and women who are out of the labour market due to care responsibilities.

Of those classified as NEETs, 35 per cent are unemployed; a further 33.3 per cent are available for work but are not actively seeking it or are not immediately available; the remaining 31.7 per cent are neither seeking work nor available for work. Women predominate in this last group and, in over half of the cases, they are mothers, with caring for children and family members being the main reason. The term ‘inactive’ itself suggests an absence of activity which does not always exist in everyday life. Those who care for a family member, carry out domestic work, take on casual jobs, look for work outside formal channels, or are in a transitional phase between two career paths share, on paper, the same statistical status, even though they experience different social realities.