Youth ‘facing a jobs crisis’

SCOTLAND is facing the biggest youth unemployment crisis in a generation, trade union leaders claimed today as figures showed the number of 18 to 24-year-olds on Jobseekers Allowance doubling in many parts of the country.

The number of jobless young people in East Lothian has soared by 142 per cent since 2007. In Midlothian, it rose by 138 per cent, in West Lothian by 86 per cent and in Edinburgh by 81 per cent. Across the country, 8.3 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds are on Jobseekers Allowance.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “We’re facing the biggest youth unemployment crisis in a generation with close to one million young people unable to find work.”