EU levels of youth unemployment in some UK areas

An Ernst & Young report details the highly regional nature of unemployment: a quarter of young people in Bradford, Middlesbrough, Swansea and Wolverhampton are unemployed, an almost-European level of youth unemployment. This highlights the structural lack of geographical mobility in the UK labour market.

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According to the report:

• North East has the highest youth unemployment rate amongst UK regions (18.3%) compared to the lowest rate of 11.2% in the East of England
• Bradford, Middlesbrough, Swansea and Wolverhampton have the highest youth unemployment rates in the country (in excess of 25% of the youth labour force)

Ernst and Young argued that "History has shown us that young people are more exposed to economic volatility and industry restructuring than the population as a whole."