Fears for the young as Britain’s jobless total hits 2.4m

The jobless total hit 2.4 million, the highest tally for nearly 15 years, the Office for National Statistics found.

Youth unemployment also rose again, with 928,000 under-25s — almost one in five of all young people — out of work.

Within minutes of the release of the figures, Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling suffered a further blow when Bank of England Governor Mervyn King issued a sober warning on the economy.

In contrast to Treasury claims that the country will bounce back quickly into growth this year, Mr King said that the pace of recovery would be "highly uncertain". He warned that the economy would be "relatively slow" to show positive growth.

The overall numbers of jobless went up to 2.435 million, a rise of 220,000 in the three months to June. The total figure has gone up by 750,000 in the past year.

Total youth unemployment rose to 928,000 in the past quarter — the highest since comparable records began in 1992. The number of jobless 16 and 17-year-olds rose by 6,000 to 206,000. The number of jobless 18 to 24-year-olds rose by 46,000 to 722,000.

The number of jobless benefit claimants increased by 24,900 to 1.58 million last month. Ministers claimed the relatively slow rise in claimant numbers suggested that their job centre schemes were beginning to have an impact. But others argued that many middle-class unemployed were relying on their spouse's income and shunning the dole.

Experts warned that youngsters could be jobless for years.

Despite some evidence that the worst of the recession may be over, the jobless rate traditionally lags behind and economists predicted that the figures were set to worsen throughout the year.

The rise in youth unemployment is particularly embarrassing for the Prime Minister as he and other Cabinet ministers made their careers attacking Tory complacency over a "lost generation" of teenagers on the dole.

New Labour claimed to have virtually eradicated joblessness among the young in its first and second terms, boasting that its New Deal was responsible. But critics said the figures had less to do with its jobs programme than the overall economic boom.

The situation is set to grow even more bleak in the months ahead, when a new crop of university graduates and school leavers enters the worst jobs market for a generation.

IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said: "Youth unemployment is a growing and very real concern.

"Unemployment still looks highly likely to rise above three million in 2010 and we suspect it could eventually peak around 3.2 million."

He warned: "Even if the economy does return to growth in the third quarter, activity is still unlikely to be strong enough for some considerable time to come to prevent further net job losses. In fact, we suspect that unemployment will rise for the rest of this year and much, if not all, of 2010."

LSE economics professor Lord Layard said it would be four years before the Government brought in a pledge to give 16 to 19-year-olds a guaranteed apprenticeship and urged ministers to fast-track the plan.

Social policy expert Danny Dorling said that there should be no rationing of university places this autumn. He warned that up to 40,000 applicants to higher education were set to be refused places and predicted that they would take jobs of less qualified school leavers "who are going to be on the dole for three, four, five years".

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson today said that the "any such level of unemployment is unacceptable".

"But the question is what would be the level of unemployment if the Government hadn't intervened in the economy in the way that we have," he said.

He said that the Government was investing £5 billion in helping people find jobs in the downturn. Lord Mandelson said he wanted a "national campaign" to get employers to offer more work experience, volunteering, apprenticeships or internships to the young jobless.