The number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work was 952,000 in the three months to October, a quarterly rise of 6,000 and the highest figure since records began in 1992.
Total unemployment increased by 21,000 to 2.49 million, the highest level since early 1995, although the quarterly rise was the smallest for 18 months.
There was some good pre-Christmas news for the Government in the figures, which showed the first fall in the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance since February last year.
The total fell by 6,300 to 1.6 million, more than half a million higher than a year ago.
Other data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the number of people out of work for more than a year increased by 49,000 in the latest quarter to 620,000, the worst total since 1997.
Unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds was 757,000, up by 26,000 from the three months to July, the highest since 1993.
The UK’s unemployment rate has now reached a 13-year high of 7.9%.
The number of people in work increased by 53,000 to almost 29 million, although the figure is 432,000 lower than a year ago.
There were 30 million jobs in the economy in September, down by 127,000 over the quarter and 649,000 fewer than a year ago.
The number of people classed as economically inactive, including those on long-term sickness or who have given up looking for a job, was 7.9 million, down by 1,000 over the three months but up by 96,000 compared to last year.
More than one in five working-age people are now economically inactive.
Average earnings increased by 1.5% in the year to October, up by 0.1% on the previous month.
The ONS also revealed today that public sector employment increased by 23,000 in the third quarter of the year to just over six million.
Employment in central government rose by 31,000, mainly because of growth in the NHS.
There were 432,000 job vacancies in the economy in the three months to November, up by 1,000 from the quarter to August but down from 124,000 from a year earlier.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article