Youth unemployment has risen to a post-pandemic high as unions warned that “young people’s futures are on the line” amid a widespread struggle to find a job.

Official figures showed youth employment has reached its highest level in more than three years. There were 597,000 young people aged 16 to 24 who were unemployed in May to July 2024, an increase of 51,000 from the previous year, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The unemployment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds increased to 13.3%, up from 12.3% in January to March. The rate for 16- to 24-year-olds was even higher, at 14.2%.

The TUC’s general secretary, Paul Nowak, described the increase as a “toxic Tory legacy” that illustrated how young people were being neglected by the government and employers.

University graduates have described the process of finding a first job as “hostile and impersonal”, leading many to work for minimum wage instead.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics have showed a trend for employers to hire older workers in recent years. Between August 2023 and August 2024, there was a decrease of 127,000 payrolled employees aged under 25. During the same period, payrolled employees aged 35 to 49 increased by 114,000. The average unemployment rate in the three months to July was 4.1%.

Nowak said: “Working people are still facing major problems left behind by the Conservatives. Vacancies have been falling for more than two years. Millions of workers are in insecure jobs and without proper employment rights. And young people’s futures are on the line as youth unemployment rises.

“Most employers support the new government’s plans to make work pay and strengthen workers’ rights. It’s time to move on from the low-pay, low-rights approach that has failed so many people so badly.”

A report by the House of Commons library said that youth unemployment was “still at a historically low level”. Youth unemployment fell to 406,000 in May to July 2022, which was the lowest recorded level since records began in 1992. Since then it has risen by almost 50%.

James Cockett, a senior labour market economist for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said it was possible that plans to improve rights for younger workers, which includes an increase in the minimum wage to the standard rate, was discouraging companies from hiring.

“It’s important proposed changes to strengthen employment rights are subject to proper consultation, to ensure they don’t add to the cost or risk employers face in employing staff as this could deter firms from recruiting young people who typically require more development.”

He said younger people also needed more support. “There is a need for the government to go further than its proposed youth guarantee for 18 to 21-year-olds.

“There is a strong case for the introduction of an apprenticeship guarantee to provide a guaranteed level 2 or 3 apprenticeship for 16- to 24-year-olds. This would help address the collapse in apprenticeship provision among young people in recent years and provide more routes into work.”

The government has said it wants to improve the number of people in work by increasing the employment rate to 80%, up from 74.8%.

Ben Harrison, the director of the Work Foundation thinktank at Lancaster University, said this was likely to be difficult to achieve while 2.79 million working-age people “remain sidelined from the workforce due to long-term sickness”.

Harrison said the government’s plans “require a rewiring of the welfare offer by overhauling the punitive culture of Jobcentres, improving public services and creating new relationships with local leaders to open up opportunities”.