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The link between youth unemployment and economic growth in the UK, and across Europe, has been broken, according to a new report from the think tank IPPR. This report is published ahead of the latest UK unemployment figures, which are published today (Weds).

New IPPR analysis of the most recent official figures in the UK shows that while adult unemployment has fallen over the last year (to July 2013), youth unemployment has continued to rise:

? The unemployment rate for 25-64 year-olds has fallen by 0.2 per cent to 5.6 per cent, whereas the youth unemployment rate has risen by 0.5 per cent to 21 per cent (958,000 young people);

? The employment rate of 25-64 year-olds has risen by 0.4 per cent to 71.7 per cent, but for young people has fallen by 1.1 per cent to 49.9 per cent;

? The youth unemployment rate is 3.74 times the adult rate, up from 3.5 times the adult rate a year ago.

The report shows that young people in the UK find a first job more quickly than in any other European country (other than Iceland), averaging around 4 months versus more than 8 months in Spain, Greece and Italy. But the report also shows that their transitions into work are riskier than in many other countries with the UK having an unemployment rate of around 20 per cent among young people who have left education, much higher than in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Belgium.

The report shows that almost a third (30 per cent) of young people unemployed in the UK have been looking for work for more than a year.

The report shows that young people in the UK who do not work during their studies are almost 9 per cent more likely to be unemployed afterwards. It also shows that the employment rate for students in the UK has steadily declined over the last decade and that the employment rate of those in full-time education has fallen by 3 per cent (83,000) in the last year.

The report shows that youth unemployment in the UK increased steadily relative to adult unemployment between 1989 to 2005, well before the recession. It shows that youth unemployment rose from one and a half times the adult rate in 1989, to more than three and a half times the adult rate in 2005.

Spencer Thompson, Research Fellow at IPPR, said:

"In the UK, and across Europe, the labour market position of young people started to deteriorate many years before the financial crisis and subsequent recession. A return to economic growth will not, on its own, bring about a sustained fall in youth unemployment. The relationship between youth unemployment and GDP growth was already weak and has become weaker since the recession. The position in the UK is particularly bad for young people. Countries that experienced a similar fall in GDP to that seen in the UK saw a less severe increase in youth unemployment.

"Tinkering with crisis-response policies like the Work Programme and the Youth Contract is not enough. Nor, on its own, is reforming the education system. We need to create much stronger links between education policy and labour market policy, particularly for those that do not go from school or college into university education. This requires an all-encompassing system that provides pathways from school through to employment and stops young people from dropping out of the system. We need guarantees of quality vocational education and real work experience that prevent young people becoming inactive. Countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands have created 'earn or learn' tracks for 18-45 year olds and taken them out of their adult welfare systems. Britain should follow suit."

Notes to Editors:

IPPR's new report - 'States of uncertainty: Youth unemployment in Europe' - will be available from Wednesday here: http://www.ippr.org/publication/55/11453/states-of-uncertainty-youth-unemployment-in-europe

IPPR's report - 'A job for everyone: What should full employment mean in 21st century Britain?' - is available here: http://bit.ly/IPPR11002