'NEETS' and 'new unemployables' — why some young adults aren’t working

Although the unemployment rate has spent 30 months at or below below 4% — a near record — not everyone who wants a job has one. And not everyone even wants a job at all.

Some, referred to as "NEETs," which stands for "not in employment, education, or training," are opting out of the labor force largely because they are discouraged by their economic standing.

Others, alternatively, are well-qualified but often younger candidates who are struggling to find positions, comprising a contingent of "new unemployables," according to a recent report by Korn Ferry. 

Among 16- to 24-year-olds, the unemployment rate rose to 9% in May, which is "typical," according to Alí Bustamante, a labor economist and director of the Worker Power and Economic Security program at the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank based in New York City.

Although the youth unemployment rate fell below 7% in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, such lows were "emblematic of how hot the labor market was at that point," Bustamante said.

"9% is basically what we should be expecting during relatively good economic times for younger workers," he added.

Still, some young adults in the U.S. are neither working nor learning new skills.

In 2023, about 11.2% of young adults ages 15 to 24 in the U.S. were considered as NEETs, according to the International Labour Organization.

In other words, roughly one in 10 young people are "being left out and left behind in many ways," Bustamante said.

Even though "that's typically the norm," he said, "we should be expecting these rates to be lower."

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