FUTURE PROSPECTS?

"One in five of Britain’s young people are now jobless, official figures showed yesterday, as total unemployment reached its highest level for 14 years. In the three months to July, the total of unemployed people aged 16 to 24 rose by nearly 60,000, to 947,000, the biggest jump since 1992. Their jobless rate is now 19.7 per cent. The total UK jobless figure for the three months rose by 210,000 to 2.47 million, the highest total since May 1995. The official unemployment rate is now 7.9 per cent. Those claiming unemployment benefit in August reached 1.61 million, up 24,400 from July and 693,700 ahead of August last year. Of these, 483,200 — nearly one in three — were aged 16 to 24." (Times, 17 September) RD