More young people are out of work now than when Labour won power in 1997 by promising to cut youth unemployment, official figures obtained by The Times reveal.

There are now 37,000 more unemployed people aged 16 to 24 than in May 1997, with the total rising from 665,000 to 702,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The unemployment rate has risen to 14.5 per cent among young people, overtaking the 14.4 per cent rate Labour inherited from the Conservative Government.

The figures are acutely embarrassing for the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who in 1997 described the youth unemployment he inherited as a “human tragedy”, “sickening” and “an economic disaster”.

Tackling youth unemployment has been one of Labour’s priorities, and the target of billions of pounds of public spending on schemes, including the New Deal for the young unemployed. The rise is particularly startling since it has occurred despite ten years of sustained economic growth and the creation of more than two million jobs.

Opposition MPs described the figures as shocking, and said they showed that the Government had completely failed on one of its priorities. The Conservatives are to use the data to sustain attacks on Mr Brown. Inflation and interest rates are both also higher now than when he became Chancellor.

The increase in youth unemployment has been dramatic in the past two years, leading to suspicions among Labour MPs that it is a result of the influx of Eastern European migrants, who were given the right to work in Britain in May 2004.

It has also been particularly marked among 16 to 17-year-olds, one in four of whom are now unemployed. Since 1997, youth unemployment has risen across London, the South East and the Midlands, but is down in the North East and South West of England. In London, the proportion of 16 and 17-year-olds who are officially unemployed is 42.9 per cent, according to the Government’s labour force survey.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said: “These shocking figures show that youth unemployment is now higher than when Gordon Brown took office.”

Frank Field, Labour’s former Welfare Reform Minister, said: “We made huge gains at the expense of the Tories in 1997 [on youth unemployment], and now we are not just back to where we started, but in a worse position.”

The Government has put a particular emphasis on tackling long-term youth unemployment, but the number of those aged between 16 and 24 who have been claiming unemployment benefits for more than a year is now three times higher than it was five years ago, although it is still far lower than in 1997. Unemployment among all age groups has been rising for the past two years, but is still below the 1997 level. Officials defended the Government’s record, saying that the number of young people claiming unemployment benefits has fallen, and that although there are more 18 to 24-year-olds out of work than in 1997, the proportion out of work has fallen.

Professor John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, said that the rise could be explained by too many people leaving school without appropriate skills, and because of the influx of workers from Eastern Europe, who often do menial jobs previously filled by unskilled young British workers.

Out of work

665,000 Unemployed aged 16 to 24 in May 1997

702,000 Unemployed between 16 and 24 now

22.5% Unemployment rate for Londoners aged 16 and 17 in 1997

42.9% Unemployment rate for Londoners aged 16 and 17 now

11,200 16 to 24-year-olds claiming benefit for more than a year last month

Source: Office for National Statistics

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