While the UK has a serious youth unemployment problem, the current situation is not worse than ever before, according to a Work Audit report on official labour market statistics from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The report says severe difficulties are only felt by a relative minority of young people and the current scale of youth unemployment is only properly understood in the context of greatly increased participation in post-16 education in recent decades.

Additionally, the fact that almost 30% of young people classified as unemployed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are in full-time education gives a distorted public perception of both the level and rate of youth unemployment. The CIPD says it is more accurate to say that one in eight rather than one in five 16-24-year-olds are unemployed.

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser, CIPD, says: “The conclusion that one in eight young people are unemployed rather than the frequently cited but misleading figure of one in five provides no comfort to those without work. But a more realistic picture of the scale of the problem would help move the policy narrative beyond the simplistic ‘lost generation’ rhetoric.”