UNITED KINGDOM

20% of Young adult bewteen 18-24 are unemployed in London

Key points

• The 'unemployment rate' is the proportion of the 'economically active' population who are not working (i.e. the number who are unemployed divided by the number who are either in paid work or unemployed, excluding those who are 'economically inactive' from both the numerator and the denominator).
• The unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has risen sharply in the current recession, from 15% in 2008 to 19% in 2009 and then to 20% in 2010.  However, the rate had already been rising for a number of years before the recession, from 12% in 2004 to 15% in 2008.  These rises have collectively more than offset the falls during the 1990s and, as a result, the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in 2010 was actually higher than its previous peak in 1993.
• Qualitatively, the unemployment rate for older workers (25 to retirement) has followed a similar pattern: falling from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s, then rising from 2004 to 2010, with a sharp rise between 2008 and 2009.  Quantitatively, however, the falls from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s were greater for older workers than for those aged 16 to 24.  As a result, the unemployment rate for older workers in 2010 was still lower than that in the early 1990s.
• Putting this point another way: the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds is now more than three times the rate for older workers.  By contrast, in the mid-1990s, it was 'just' twice the rate for older workers.
• As a result, two-fifths of all those who are unemployed are now aged under 25.
• Averaging across 2008 to 2010, the unemployment rate was higher for young men than for young women: 20% compared with 15%.  This contrasts with the situation for those aged 25 to retirement, where the unemployment rates for men and women are similar.
• At 22%, the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds is highest in London.
• See the indicator on the wider issue of lack of work among working-age adults as a whole.

Graph 1: Over time (proportions)

View Graph as PDF (resizeable)   

Graph 2: Over time (numbers)

View Graph as PDF (resizeable) 

Graph 3: By gender

View Graph as PDF (resizeable)   

Graph 4: By region

View Graph as PDF (resizeable)  

The data source for all the graphs is the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the data relates to the United Kingdom (except for 1993 and 1994 in the first graph, which are for Great Britain).  The figures for each year are the average for the four quarters of the relevant year.

Overall adequacy of the indicator: high.  The LFS is a large, well-established, quarterly government survey designed to be representative of the population as a whole.