YOUTH unemployment has soared to a three-year high, figures showed today as unions warned the rise is leaving young people’s “futures on the line.”

The latest labour market data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), released today, show that the youth unemployment rate hit 13.3 per cent over the three months to July, up 1.4 per cent on the previous quarter.

In comparison, the rate of unemployment for the public as a whole was 4.1 per cent, down from 4.2 per cent over the previous three months.

Job vacancies fell once again, dropping by 42,000 quarter-on-quarter to 857,000 in the three months to August.

More real-time figures showed the number of payrolled workers fell by 59,000 between July and August to 30.3 million.

Real wages finally returned to the 2008 level, the TUC said, but added that there is “much lost ground still to make up.”

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Working people are still facing major problems left behind by the Conservatives.

“Vacancies have been falling for more than two years.

“Millions of workers are in insecure jobs and without proper employment rights. And young people’s futures are on the line as youth unemployment rises.

“Most employers support the new government’s plans to make work pay and strengthen workers’ rights.

“It’s time to move on from the low-pay, low-rights approach that has failed so many people so badly.”

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he is “really concerned” by the figures.

The ONS data also showed that regular wage growth fell to 5.1 per cent year on year over the three months to July, marking the lowest level since the quarter to July 2022.

Taking consumer prices index inflation into account, workers saw their pay increase by 3 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent in the previous three months.