Scotland and the north-east of England are doing particularly badly within a general North-South divide, according to a study by a financial education and training company that shows North Ayrshire as a UK blackspot.
Dave Moxham, deputy general secretary of the Scottish TUC said: "Although the major driver for rises in youth unemployment continues to be George Osborne's disastrous austerity programme, these figures should act to focus the minds of Scottish Government ministers too.
"In particular, we must ensure that the maximum number of Modern Apprenticeships end up with positive employment outcomes.
"Moving from an apprenticeship back on to the dole should be the exception rather than the rule."
London and the south-east of England remain relatively unaffected by youth unemployment, according to training company Ambitious Minds, which says this summer's school-leavers will face the most dramatic changes to their prospects and expectations for 70 years. When they started secondary school unemployment rates were low, but the past five years have brought "economic deterioration, systemic failures, false dawns and empty promises," says the report.
The organisation looked at the impact of the recession on job prospects and found hotspots of youth unemployment throughout the UK, based on published figures.
Scotland, the north-east of England and Yorkshire and the Humber have all had rises in youth unemployment that are twice as large as those in London and the south-east, which have seen only small increases, it claims.
Corby in Leicestershire has been the worst affected, with unemployment rates among young people rising from 4% to 11% between 2007 and 2012. This was followed by North Ayrshire, where youth unemployment has risen from 6.5% to 12.6%.
Overall, the north-east of England had seen the biggest rises.
In September 2007, 5.1% of 16-to-24-year-olds in the region were claiming
Jobseekers' Allowance. By July 2012 this had risen to 8.6% – an increase of 3.5 percentage points.
In Scotland, the rate of young claimants also rose by 3.5 percentage points over the same period, the report says.
At the other end of the scale, London saw a rise of 1.4 percentage points, and in the south-east of England there was an increase of 1.6 percentage points.
Sean McGuire, chief executive of Ambitious Minds, said: "Areas that have suffered disproportionately in the last five years need support to prevent unemployment, and especially long-term unemployment, becoming normalised."
Official figures showed that in the three months to June, 1.01 million 16-to-24-year-olds were considered out of work, down 4000 down on the previous three months.
