Youth unemployment hits record

Youth unemployment hit an unwanted milestone as it passed through the one million barrier, latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

There were a record 1,0160,000 unemployed people aged 16-24 years in the third quarter of 2011 — a rise of 66,000 on the second quarter of the year.

The unemployment rate for the age group rose from 20.2% to 21.9% over the two quarters.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the milestone of more than a million young people being out of work is “the true mark of the government’s economic strategy”.

He added: “The prime minister must stop the risk of losing a generation to unemployment and under achievement by guaranteeing a job or high quality training to every young person out of work for six months.”

A total of 2.62 million people were unemployed under the Labour Force Survey count in the third quarter — a 129,000 rise on the previous quarter.

Twice as many men as women — 86,000 against 43,000 — became unemployed, pushing the overall unemployment rate to 8.3% from 7.9%.

“The 2.6 million people out of work is the clearest sign yet that self-defeating austerity is not working,” said Barber.

The number of Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants rose to just under 1.6 million in October — a 5.0% unemployment rate.