Youth unemployment nears one million

Youth unemployment figures continued to creep towards the one million mark with the number of unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds reaching 963,000 at the end of February, 12,000 more than the previous quarter.

Alan Booth, spokesman for Catch22, said: "We talk about young people as the future, as the group that will create better, stronger communities but these figures show that they are falling behind in the very communities and the very opportunities they should be participating in.

"Young people have been hit hard, perhaps harder than most other groups. They have a right to be outraged. The recent economic restructuring, cuts in public spending, changes to employment and training opportunities and changes to welfare budgets have created unprecedented impacts on young people. When is it going to stop?"

The statistics also revealed that the number of unemployed young people not in full-time education fell from 681,000 to 666,000 over the quarter and the number of students in full-time education looking for work increased by 27,000.

Employment minister Chris Grayling said: "These figures are another step in the right direction, it’s good news to see a rise in the number of full-time jobs in the private sector and the fall in unemployment is welcome. It is also reassuring to see a fall in the number of young people not in full-time education who are unemployed.

"However, there are challenges ahead and our priority is to continue to support the economy, by reducing the deficit and putting in place measures to encourage growth in the private sector."

He added that tackling youth unemployment remains a priority for ministers and that the government is committed to increasing the number of apprenticeships and work experience opportunities. Changes to welfare will also mean that young people will be able to do up to two months of work experience and keep their benefits as opposed to the previous system which only allowed for two weeks.