empirical evidence suggests that workers in oecd countries today need al least an upper secondary diploma to be able to compete in the workforce see a review in lyche young people who have not completed school have a difficult time securing stable employment and earn less on average than high school graduates bradshaw obrennan and mcneely in most countries the share of young people who are neither employed nor in education or training neet is relatively small among those who have completed tertiary education but much larger among those who completed at most lower secondary education figure