Youth who are not in employment, education, or training in New Zealand
2016 Q3–2026 Q3, % of people aged 15-24 (NEET rate)
| Quarter | % of the working age population within group |
|---|---|
| 2016 Q3 | 11.0% |
| 2016 Q4 | 13.8% |
| 2017 Q1 | 13.7% |
| 2017 Q2 | 11.0% |
| 2017 Q3 | 11.0% |
| 2017 Q4 | 12.0% |
| 2018 Q1 | 13.4% |
| 2018 Q2 | 10.5% |
| 2018 Q3 | 9.7% |
| 2018 Q4 | 14.6% |
| 2019 Q1 | 14.2% |
| 2019 Q2 | 9.8% |
| 2019 Q3 | 10.2% |
| 2019 Q4 | 12.4% |
| 2020 Q1 | 15.2% |
| 2020 Q2 | 11.8% |
| 2020 Q3 | 11.9% |
| 2020 Q4 | 13.0% |
| 2021 Q1 | 14.3% |
| 2021 Q2 | 10.9% |
| 2021 Q3 | 11.1% |
| 2021 Q4 | 11.3% |
| 2022 Q1 | 13.8% |
| 2022 Q2 | 10.7% |
| 2022 Q3 | 10.4% |
| 2022 Q4 | 11.4% |
| 2023 Q1 | 12.4% |
| 2023 Q2 | 10.8% |
| 2023 Q3 | 11.1% |
| 2023 Q4 | 12.5% |
| 2024 Q1 | 14.1% |
| 2024 Q2 | 12.0% |
| 2024 Q3 | 11.3% |
| 2024 Q4 | 13.7% |
| 2025 Q1 | 14.4% |
| 2025 Q2 | 12.2% |
| 2025 Q3 | 12.7% |
| 2025 Q4 | 13.5% |
| 2026 Q1 | 15.9% |
| 2026 Q2 | 13.0% |
| 2026 Q3 | 13.2% |
Definitions
NEET (not in employment, education, or training): Young people who are unemployed (part of the labour force) and not engaged in education or training, and those not in the labour force and not engaged in education or training for many reasons.
NEET rate: The total number of youth who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), as a proportion of the youth working-age population.
Data calculation/treatment
Due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 in the June and September 2020 quarters, several seasonally adjusted series were specially treated to maintain a consistent estimate of the seasonal pattern.
Changes to data collection/processing
This release incorporates revisions to historical household labour force survey data to account for the latest national population estimates. As such, figures published in this update may differ from those previously published.
Data provided by
Dataset name
Household Labour Force Survey: Youth NEET by Regional Council by Age (Quarterly) September 2026
Webpage:
http://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/
How to find the data
At URL provided, select 'Work income and spending > Household Labour Force Survey - HLF > Youth NEET by Regional Council by Age (Qrtly-Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec)'. All variables were selected to create this dataset.
Import & extraction details
File as imported: Household Labour Force Survey: Youth NEET by Regional Council by Age (Quarterly) September 2026
From the dataset Household Labour Force Survey: Youth NEET by Regional Council by Age (Quarterly) September 2026, this data was extracted:
- Rows: 5-95
- Columns: 2-270
- Provided: 12,285 data points
This data forms the table Labour Force - Youth NEET by region and age group 2004 Q1–2026 Q3.
Dataset originally released on:
November 04, 2026
Purpose of collection
The primary purpose of the survey is to estimate the number of people employed, unemployed, and not in the labour force (NILF), and from them, the unemployment rate for the New Zealand labour market. The Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) is designed to produce statistics at the family level, and use of the survey for a purpose for which it was not designed is inevitably subject to some limitations.