The number of young people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK who were not in education, employment or training (NEET), fell by 34,000 in the period from October to December 2017, when compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Office of National Statistics.

The data showed that the percentage of all young people in the UK who were NEET was 11.2%. This was a decrease of 0.3% when compared to the same period last year.

In total, there were 794,000 young people (aged 16 to 24 years) in the UK who were considered NEET in the period from October to December 2017.

When compared to the previous three months ended September, the number of NEETs increased by 5,000 while the proportion of NEET increased by 0.1% for the same period.

Of all young people in the UK who were NEET, 41.6% were looking for work and available for work and therefore classified as unemployed; the remainder were either not looking for work and/or not available for work and therefore classified as economically inactive.