status zer0

noun

Of youth, the status of having no employment and not being enrolled in any educational or training program.

Meanings

status zer01

nounstatus zer0 (uncountable)

alternative Status Zer0 · alternative status zero

  1. UKdateduncountableOf youth, the status of having no employment and not being enrolled in any educational or training program.

    At their most desperate or resourceful, young women who are status zer0 survive through the criminal economy and in many cases through prostitution.

    2004, Anita Harris, Future Girl: Young Women in the Twenty-First Century, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    A cursory comparison of status zer0 young people from two neighbouring, but contrasting localities illuminates not only important similarities amongst status zer0 young people but also some striking differences: in backgrounds, support networks, attitudes and anticipated futures.

    1997, Howard Williamson, Youth and policy: contexts and consequences, →ISBN

    What was particularly disturbing in the data is that, of those in 'status zer0', 'long-term' members far outnumbered the 'short-termers' who had spent less than six months out of work and learning - only 6 out of the 402 sample (Istance et al., 1994, p. 53).

    2004, Peter Dwyer, Johanna Wyn, Youth, Education and Risk: Facing the Future, →ISBN, page 40

Status Zer02

nounStatus Zer0 (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of status zer0.

    An effective analysis of some of the structural limitations that exist in people's lives with particular reference to the problems experienced by Status Zer0 youth.

    2000, Stephen Miles, Youth Lifestyles In A Changing World, →ISBN, page 43
    3 more examples

    So few young people found employment they are almost immaterial to the analysis. For the purposes of this paper, one critical finding was that two-fifths of these young people experienced Status Zer0 for six months or more (an arbitrary cut-off point, but a pertinent one nonetheless, since it represents a quarter of the full course of a youth training programme).

    2006, Robert Macdonald, Youth, The 'Underclass' and Social Exclusion, →ISBN, page 74

    While few parents would endorse the unemployed status of their offspring at this age, a proportion of 16 and 17 year olds faced with limited opportunities in employment or training, opt out of the system altogether (Status Zer0).

    2013, Andreas Walther, Misleading Trajectories, →ISBN

    Unemployed young people and those not engaged in education or training -- pejoratively referred to first as Status Zer0 and then NEETs (Furlong, 2006) -- became a special focus of concern, with a consequent drive to encourage, if not to coerce, participation.

    2014, Anne Robinson, Foundations for Youth Justice: Positive Approaches to Practice, →ISBN, page 78
Cite this entry
APA

status zer0. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/status%20zer0

MLA

“status zer0.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/status%20zer0. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “status zer0,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/status%20zer0.

Source: status zer0 on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.