A key Government pledge to get more youngsters into work is lying in tatters after unemployment among 18- to 24-year-olds rocketed to a 13-year high. Unemployment in the age bracket increased by 53,000 to 579,000 in the three months to September, its highest level since 1995, some 18 months before New Labour swept to power.

The dark failing was exposed as official figures showed overall unemployment heading dangerously towards two million - itself an 11-year high.

Armies of youths have left schools, colleges and universities and headed straight for the dole queue as they fall victim to the recession. Others are being axed just months into new jobs as struggling firms adopt a "last in, first out" policy. There is also a forgotten generation that simply doesn't have the skills employers are looking for.

There are growing fears the problem of youth unemployment could become a constant scar on Britain rather than a temporary blemish. "The rise in long-term youth unemployment is particularly worrying," said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. "High unemployment is going to be with us for some time now. It is not just an economic problem, but a social problem too."

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling said: "The most alarming part of these unemployment figures is the sharp jump in youth unemployment. Getting young people into work was right at the centre of this Government's strategy back in 1997. Yet the harsh reality is that there are more young people not in education or employment today than there were then, and the number of unemployed young people is rocketing."

David Blanchflower, the arch-dove of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, has also raised concerns. "I am particularly worried at the rise in the number of young unemployed people," he explained recently. "These are school leavers who are unable to get a job or claim benefits, which is why the claimant count has not risen further than it has."

The rate of unemployment among 18- to 24-year-olds was 13.1% when Tony Blair won office in May 1997. It is 13.7% today, far higher than the overall rate of 5.8% and those of older age groups.

More than a decade of Government promises to cut youth unemployment and prepare youngsters adequately for the workplace appears to have come to nothing.

Ministers have long hailed the success of the New Deal introduced in 1998 to boost employment among the young, while the Government has also pushed to get more and more people to go to university.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "Over the last decade, we've cut the number of young people stuck long term on Jobseekers Allowance by around 80%. The challenge is to make sure we get all those who lose their jobs back into work as quickly and painlessly as we can."

But Government figures tell another story, with 109,000 out of work for more than a year and 39,000 for more than two years. Furthermore, many of those leaving university do not have degrees that employers are looking for, are laden with debt, and cannot find work.

John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said unemployment among 18- to 24-year-olds was still high during the boom of recent years.

"Youth unemployment has been relatively stubborn in the last few years even when the economy was doing well," said Philpott. "We have young people who don't have the skills that employers are looking for. It is about work ethic, commitment and personability so they can turn up to work and deal with people. There is a sub-generation where that doesn't happen."

With recession, things have gone from bad to worse. "Clearly, with the economic downturn coming about, the jobs aren't going to be there and many more of them are going to be unemployed," said Philpott. "And the least experienced and least productive people tend to be those who get let go first. Young people are very much in the firing line."

Blanchflower, an expert in the economics of the jobs market, once said a youth potion which turned people at the prime working ages of 35 to 55 into 25-year-olds would be more popular than Viagra. "Only one thing would clearly worsen as a result of the trade," he added. "Their labour-market prospects."