UNEMPLOYMENT rose by 114,000 between June and August to 2.57 million, a 17-year high, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the unemployment rate also increased to 8.1%.
The unemployment total for 16-24 year-olds hit a record high of 991,000 in the quarter, a jobless rate of 21.3%.
The number of people out of work and claiming benefits rose 17,500 to 1.6 million in September.
Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis said: ‘Today’s figures show that young people are paying a heavy price for the bankers’ recession – the government must act to give them hope for the future.
‘Long-term unemployed figures are also climbing – to be out of work for more than 12 months has a huge impact on people and their families.
‘The government must put a stop to public sector job losses – they are hitting the private sector, and our chances of recovery, hard.’
University and College Union (UCU) general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘We hit record youth unemployment levels at the same time that financial support for college students has been removed, the cost of a university degree has trebled and the Future Jobs Fund has been axed.
‘The government needs to urgently rethink these policies and provide the support young people need to get into education, training and jobs.
‘Otherwise we risk consigning an entire generation to a life with no jobs, no education and no prospects.’
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘These are terrible figures. The government’s austerity measures have turned unemployment into a full-blown crisis – with job losses not seen since the darkest days of the recession.
‘Worryingly, this is not simply the result of Eurozone troubles.
‘This unemployment crisis is state-sponsored, and areas like the North East are paying a heavy price with more than one in ten people out of work.
‘The news for those in work is bleak too, with wage rises falling back to just 1.8 per cent and creating an even tighter squeeze on living standards.
‘The Chancellor’s Plan A has sent unemployment to a 17-year high. This country urgently needs a plan B to get people back into work.’
Paul Kenny GMB General Secretary said: ‘The Tories and Lib Dem’s big gamble that private sector growth would create enough jobs to compensate for their cuts in public sector jobs has not come off as the rise to 2.57m without jobs shows.
‘In the middle of the worst international recession for 80 years the Government itself is creating unemployment with 250,000 public sector posts already gone and still more to come.
‘Government policy is hurting but it’s not working.
‘The squandering of human talent through unemployment is a crime that will haunt future generations.’
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘Almost daily now, new evidence is coming out that our economy is on the brink of another recession and our government is recklessly and cruelly driving us over the edge.
‘Before they abandon a generation to unemployment for ideological reasons, ministers need to urgently invest in our future and halt the cuts that are wreaking havoc across the country, not least to the very staff who can get people back to work, earning money and paying their taxes.’
Young Socialists National Secretary Joshua Ogunleye said: ‘These trade union leaders should stop talking and start fighting. This government has sacked so many people, it must be sacked itself.
‘The time for General Strike action to defend all jobs, the Welfare State and to win jobs for youth and a socialist future is now. We need a workers government’.
