Being neet in Italy in the post-Covid-19 era

Over the past three decades, the term NEET (Not in Education, Employ-ment, or Training) has gained global prominence in describing young indi-viduals disengaged from education and the labor market. Originally coined in the late 1990s to describe British youth aged 16–18, the term now encompasses a heterogeneous social group with diverse character-istics depending on the context. In Europe, NEETs are primarily analyzed in terms of risks of social and economic exclusion for individuals aged 15–29, reflecting challenges in education and labor sectors. In Italy, the NEET phenomenon became significant in the late 1990s and worsened during the 2008 economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a decline in the NEET rate from 26% in 2021 to 23% in 2022 (OECD) in Italy, it re-mains a critical issue. Factors such as educational poverty, school drop-outs, and inadequate labour policies contribute to this persistent chal-lenge. This paper examines the Italian NEET condition using data from the 2018 and 2021 waves of the PLUS survey (Participation, Labour, Unem-ployment, Survey) conducted by INAPP. Our findings aim to provide a nu-anced understanding of this complex phenomenon and inform policy in-terventions.