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Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET)

Domain

Prosperity

Subdomain

Skills and opportunity

Indicator

Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET)

Note: This indicator is a headline indicator. Headline indicators are intended to provide a high-level assessment of overall quality of life in Canada.

Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) data snapshot
Description - Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) data snapshot

11% of youth, aged 15 to 29 years, were not in employment, education or training (NEET).

Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET)
  2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Not in employment, education or training (NEET) 12% 11% 14% 14% 11% 11%

Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, 2018-2023.


Definition

Proportion of the youth population who are not in employment, education or training.


Measurement

This indicator is measured in the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Respondents are asked questions about their labour force activity and school attendance during the reference week of the survey.

Survey responses are used to classify persons aged 15 to 29 years according to three mutually exclusive categories: those in education (including employed students), those who are employed and not in school, and those who are not in employment or in school (the NEET population). This information is used to calculate the proportion of the population aged 15 to 29 years who are NEET.

Persons in employment are those who, during the reference week, did any work for pay or profit or had a job and were absent from work.

A person is deemed to be in school (in education or training) if they attend an educational institution (primary, secondary, trade school, college or university) on a full-time or part-time basis.


Data sources


Data visualizations


Data analysis


Additional information

The proportion of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is a well-established indicator that has been regularly published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since the late 1990s and by Statistics Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), since 2009. This indicator has been closely monitored by policy-makers as young people who are NEET may be experiencing difficulties transitioning from school to the labour market, and could be at risk for low income and social exclusion.

For more information on the NEET rate, please refer to the OECD Data web page Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET).

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