Mapping Young NEETs Across Europe: Exploring the Institutional Configurations Promoting Youth Disengagement from Education and Employment

Over the past decade, the number of young people neither in employment, education, or training (NEET) has reached a seriously high level in many European countries. Previous studies have illustrated the heterogeneity of this group and that they differ considerably across Europe. However, the reasons of these cross-country differences have hardly been investigated so far. This study explores how the rates of different NEET subgroups are conditioned by various institutional configurations by applying fuzzy-set Quantitative Comparative Analysis for 26 European countries using aggregated EU Labour Force Survey data from 2018. The analysis reveals that institutional causes of being NEET are as diverse as the group itself. Thus, high levels of young NEETs with care responsibilities are found in countries with a lack of family-related services in conjunction with weak formalised long-term care as it is true in mostly Central Eastern European countries. In contrast, high rates of NEETs with a disability are prevalent mainly in Northern European countries where generous and inefficient disability benefit schemes exist that create false incentives to stay away from the labour market. Finally, high proportions of unemployed and discouraged young NEETs are found in those countries hit hardest by the crisis and with high labour market rigidities, low vocational specificity, and a lack of active labour market policies like in the Southern and some Central Eastern European countries. The results illustrate that young people face very different barriers across Europe and that country-specific measures must be taken to reduce the number of NEETs in Europe.