Not employed, in education or training: Canada’s male ‘NEET’ rate ticks up

Frankly, the real news is that there aren't more NEETs. Work is awful, a full time job is worse than dying (and I've been on the edge of dying), we've deliberately made it as bad as we possibly can and just expect people to deal with it.

Jeez, why so you find your job so bad? I'm asking because I enjoy mine.
- I enjoy my job too for the most part, but i have to work 50+ hours per week in order to make ends meet and still save enough for the future. I'm so exhausted most of the time from work that my perosnal and social life is significantly impacted. My position is also technically on call but without on call pay and has very inconsistent hours, making adhering to a personal schedule or social plans very difficult.
  I love my job but i am overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and under regulated.
- C'mon, you aren't that sheltered. Work, almost all work, is bad for a multitude of reasons. A solid half of all jobs don't need to exist to begin with, beyond that the majority of jobs strip away individuality and humanity, take up far too much of your limited time on earth (or take over your life entirely if you're working a really shitty job), most leave you at the whims of a dark triad psychopath (studies show capitalism rewards psychopaths), are completely mind numbing, and absolutely no real job pays you enough for the bullshit.
  I'm not the best one to explain the vast problems nor do i currently have to time (i shoulda been at work, like, 15 minutes ago), but there are many resources you can look into. From scholarly papers to books to YouTube essays if you want to listen on the job.
Work only sucks if you're forced in positions where you live pay check to pay check or the job just sucks. I dont mind mine, it has its frustrations sure, but thats life. However, anytime my managers come and say "we gotta put in 110% effort and work overtime any on holidays to meet the impossible deadlines we set!" I tell them, nah. I do my 40 hours, the rest is a management problem. And if they got a problem with my response... well thats their problem not mine.
Get a new job. Change your life. Don't go around blaming everyone around you with this nonsense. No work isn't worse than dying. If you aren't motivated enough to make things better for your self then obviously things aren't that bad and you are just being a fucking drama lama.
- Llama

Remember, if you don’t fit into capitalist society to make line go up faster then you’re considered abnormal. /s

Capitalism is expressly designed for neurotypicals.
If your particular deviancy cannot be monetized for the benefit of those who sign your cheques, you’re worse than useless - you’re actively dangerous to the profit stream flowing upwards to the Parasite Class.
- Even regular people are realizing there’s not a lot of return for what they sacrifice.

We should invest more in our youth.

Who wants to work 50+ hours a week with no benefits, inconsistent scheduling, and no future to buy a home? Thats the reality for many young people today.
Best we can do is buying half of all mortgage bonds to allow them to take on millions in full recourse loans to buy a home.

Right now I’m taking a sabbatical for two main reasons:

My parents are reaching EoL, and as the executor of their estate I’m getting involved in them handing everything off to the rest of us. So this pause in my career couldn’t have come at a better time -- how many kids have the opportunity to spend the last year or two of their parent’s lives with them to help them wrap stuff up? Not many.
My entire industry has gone koo-koo for AI. They are quite literally eliminating entire development divisions in favour of badly hallucinating LLM’s that create some of the shittiest code I have ever seen -- it’s worse than having only juniors on staff with no-one else more experienced. So I am waiting out until the inevitable “ZOMG we need to hire everyone back” stage, just like Klarna is doing right now. Because as it is, 60+% of all job postings are ghost ads, with no intent to hire anyone, and the other 40% require applicants to go through 4+ interviews and have ridiculous requirements. Like, no. if the pope was appointed with only two rounds of discussions, your company doesn’t need to rope in 20+ people over multiple interviews and weeks of deliberations to hire my sorry ass.