ACCORDING to recently released figures, around one million young people are unemployed – and more than half a million pupils who left school, college or university under Labour have never had a job.

Other grim figures released (during the middle of last month) by the Office for National Statistics include:

+ Unemployment in the UK for the fourth quarter of last year was 7.9%. This was up 0.1% on the previous quarter.

+ The total number of unemployed jumped by 44,000 between October and December to 2.49 million – and the number in work dropped by 68,000 over the same period.

+ Youth unemployment rose by 66,000 to 965,000. This is the highest since records began in 1992. The jobless rate is now 7.9 per cent, with the rate for the young jobless running at 20.5 per cent.

+ One in five 16- to 24-year-olds is jobless and searching for work at a time when five unemployed people are chasing every vacancy.

+ The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance increased by 2,400 between December 2010 and January 2011. Those now claiming JSA number 1.46 million.

Whilst the seeds of these figures were laid on Labour’s ‘watch’ the Coalition’s drastic cuts may multiply the numbers. Rather than balancing the books by reducing expenditure we suggest once again the Banks pay more for their mistakes!