A report on people aged 15 to 29 in Argentina who are neither studying nor working. It argues that the “nini” label, the local term for NEET, is stigmatising because it brings together very different situations —unemployment, early school leaving, unpaid care work, informality and discouragement— and that the phenomenon cannot be explained by a lack of individual willingness. Among the urban population its incidence fell from 20.2% in 2014 to 15.5% in 2023, from roughly one young person in five to one in six, yet the gender gap persists: 19% among women against 12% among men, tied to the weight of care responsibilities. International comparison places Argentina below the Latin American average of 20.4% and close to Spain and Italy, far from the Netherlands at 5.2% and Germany at 9.9%, where vocational training and the option of combining study with work organise the transition. The guidelines it proposes rest on five pillars: preventing early school leaving, flexible routes to completing secondary education, training linked to productive needs, access to a first formal job and wider care services.
Report