THE SPECIFICS OF THE NEETS POPULATION IN ROMANIA WITHIN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT

The young in the NEET group represent a social category specific to today’s society, characterized by increasing inequalities between people, precariousness and insecurity. The issue of young Romanians in the NEET scenario, in terms of their relation to the formal education system, respectively to the alternative forms, specific to non formal education, is a particularly sinuous one, with a vast range of nuances and a sufficiently consistent casuistry. The interest for this category of population is even greater in Romania, because the share of NEETs is the highest in the EU-27: 19.4% in 2024 (significantly above the EU average of 11%). In fact, this share is up by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous year. This percentage is hiding multiple realities: early school dropout, lack of real job opportunities for the youth, gap between skills acquired in school and labour market requirements, labour migration or lack of coherent policies for youth integration into economy. This paper presents a brief analysis on the phenomenon of the NEET youth in Romania’s specific context, both at regional and at national level. The risk factors for the inclusion of young people in the NEET category in urban and rural areas, the challenges that young generations face in the transition to adult life, and the regional disparities in the NEET rate are identified and analysed.