The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has expanded the way in which it investigates youth unemployment figures, leading to some confusion for employers over whether it is on the rise or in decline.
The Labour Market Statistics Report for April 2011 still reports the internationally accepted unemployment figures – which, as the ONS states, include "people in full-time education [...] if they are looking for employment and are available for work" – which rose by one-tenth of a percentage point to 20.4% in the three-month period leading up to February 2011.
However, the report also includes a new figure "excluding people in full-time education, [on which measure] there were 666,000 unemployed 16 to 24-year-olds in the three months to February 2011, down 15,000 from the three months to November 2010.
"The unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds not in full-time education was 18.6%, down 0.6 percentage points from the three months to November 2010."
The new statistic is the result of a call from Iain Duncan Smith for the ONS to alter the way in which it reports youth unemployment levels and move away from what he called a tendency to focus on the "misleading" internationally accepted measure.
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