The UK rate of youth unemployment has risen above the European average – another worrying sign for the country’s prospects relative to the rest of the world.

In the same week that the IMF predicted Britain would be one of the countries most affected by the world recession, figures released by the Eurostat agency show that the UK rate of unemployment for 16-24 year olds in October was 16.1 per cent - above the Euro area average of 15.9 per cent.

John Philpott, chief economist and public policy director at the CIPD, commented that the UK has for many years prided itself on having relatively low youth unemployment by European Union standards, so these latest figures highlight the severe impact of the recession on job prospects for young people.

“Today’s Eurostat figures are worrying as well as deeply disappointing,” Philpott said. “Britain’s flexible jobs market has been generally considered successful at maintaining relatively low youth unemployment. But the recession is making life very tough for our young jobseekers and youth unemployment is rising fast, with more than 800,000 16-24 year olds unemployed in the UK at the end of 2008.

“At 6.1 per cent, overall UK unemployment remains low by EU standards but the UK is now doing less well when it comes to creating jobs for young people. They have been hit far harder than any other group by the emerging recession and must take priority when it comes to government action on tackling mounting joblessness.”