The call, from think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), comes as latest government figures reveal there were 1.04 million 16- to 24-year-olds out of work in the three months to November last year.
This is up 51,000 on the previous quarter and means 22 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds are unemployed. This is the highest rate since comparable records began in 1992.
Of those young people out of work, 247,000 have been unemployed for more than a year.
The £1bn Youth Contract was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last November to provide wage subsidies and work placements.
But IPPR senior research fellow Kayte Lawton said this does not go far enough. She believes all those out of work for more than a year across all ages should be handed at the very least a minimum wage job in the public or voluntary sector.
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