Creating better opportunities for young people is an investment in the future well-being of individuals and societies alike. For individuals, it means enhanced financial independence, skill development, and the ability to contribute meaningfully to society. Societies, in turn, benefit from a more dynamic and diverse workforce, fostering innovation and economic growth as well as mitigating social inequalities.

Through the Investing in Youth series, the OECD provides detailed assessments of countries’ skills, employment, and social policies from an international perspective and explores avenues to improve outcomes for young people with targeted recommendations. The present report on the North Denmark Region is the thirteenth in the series. It presents new results from an in-depth analysis of the situation of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) in the North Denmark Region, using various sources of survey-based and administrative data. Building on an extensive analysis of the risk factors associated with unemployment and inactivity, the report examines the role of Job centres in the North Denmark Region and their collaboration with other stakeholders. The report offers tailored recommendations to reduce the NEET rate in the North Denmark Region, building on the OECD Recommendation on Creating Better Opportunities for Young People, which was adopted by all OECD Member countries in 2022, and incorporating examples from the OECD Youth Policy Toolkit. Earlier reviews in the Investing in Youth series have looked at youth outcomes and policies in Brazil (2014), Latvia and Tunisia (2015), Australia, Lithuania and Sweden (2016), Japan (2017), Norway (2018), Finland, Korea and Peru (2019), and Slovenia (2021).

This report is the work of the Youth and Diversity Policies Unit of the Directorate for Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs. Andrea Hofer and Veerle Miranda (project leader) prepared the report, under the supervision of Monika Queisser (Head of the Social Policy Division). Hanna Varkki provided editorial support.