Abstract:

“Status zero” was the first term used to refer to young people in a similar way we actually use the concept of Not Employed, in Education or Training (NEET). As NEET, it is a concept that aimed to highlight a group that was not being considered in other statistical classifications. Policies like Youth Guarantee are currently on the opposite side of the spectrum, prioritizing this group, taking it into account as a very relevant information of the situation of the youth. Nonetheless, authors like Navarrete, Carreras and De Francisco (2011) argue that not every NEET should be considered as member of that category. Some believe that there are very different typologies of NEET. Indeed, we have found that there are substantial differences in the composition of the group depending on the country. Through the confrontation of the educational level of the NEET in the Mediterranean countries of the European Economic Area, we will try to understand why their average educational level is much lower than the national average in Spain, while the opposite happens in Greece. The standardized data of the Labour Force Surveys will allow us to move into a regional approach. This perspective will help us to explain the heterogeneity within the countries. Also, the combination with other indicators of education (like early leavers’ rates or the gender gap in tertiary educational attainment) and macroeconomic factors (like the impact of the crisis in GDP growth, investment in education and youth unemployment) will help us to clarify some of the reasons behind this disparities.

Keywords:

NEET, NUTS 2, Mediterranean European Economic Area, educational differences.