Youth unemployment up again

Young people continue to bear the brunt of the coalition’s economic policies as youth unemployment hit another grim record.

The number of unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds rose 54,000 to 1.03 million in the three months ending October. It beat last month’s unwanted record of being the highest total since records began in 1992.

The unemployment rate among this age group rose to 22% in the three months to October, up from 20.8% three months earlier.

Total unemployment under the Labour Force survey count rose by 128,000 in this period to 2.64 million, the highest level for 17 years, pushing the jobless rate up to 8.3% from 7.9% in the previous three-month period.

The number of unemployed men rose by 83,000 to 1.54 million and their jobless rate was up to 9.0% from 8.5%. For women, the rise was 45,000 taking their total to 1.1 million and their jobless rate to 7.5% from 7.3%.

General secretary of the UNISON public services union Dave Prentis said the government was continuing to ignore the human cost of unemployment, and to “push ahead with its hard and fast cuts”.

The claimant count — the number of people out of work and claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance — rose by 3,000 to 1.6 million in November. It was the ninth consecutive monthly rise.

The rise was low enough to keep the jobless rate under this count at 5.0%.