According to an analysis of official figures, youth unemployment rate is worst for 20 years, compared with overall figure. Young people 16 to 24 year olds are nearly three times more likely to be unemployed than the rest of the population.
The number of people aged 16-24 who are not in full-time education or employment has increased by 8,000 over the last quarter. With 498,000 in that age group without a job, an analysis by the House of Commons library for Labour shows that young people now fare comparatively worse than at any point since 1992.
Their unemployment rate is 14.4%. The overall unemployment rate now stands at 5.7% of the total working population, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has warned that unemployed teens under a future Tory government would be forced to pick up litter or carry out other community work if they want to receive benefits.
The Conservatives have accused Labour of seeking to “talk down the economy” by latching on to the recent youth unemployment figures when the total number out of work in the UK fell by 97,000 to 1.86 million in the three months to December.
However Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said there could be “no doubt” that there was a genuine issue with youth unemployment that needed to be addressed.
She said: “It has been three months in a row [that youth unemployment has gone up]. It went up by 3,000 this month and 30,000 last month. There is an issue and we want ministers to focus on it before it becomes even more of a problem. Read more
