According to the Office of National Statistics, approximately 26% of 16 year-olds with only one GCSE are unemployed. In comparison, almost 25% of 21-year old graduates are unemployed.

Although these statistics may seem alarming at first, these figures alone do not undermine the value of degree: unsurprisingly, they revealed that people with A-levels or a degree are more likely to get jobs over time.

ONS's survey on the Characteristics of Young Unemployed People revealed that youth employment has reached 1.04 million.

The ONS also showed that a rise in youth unemployment has followed each of the three successive recessions over the past few decades.

Youth unemployment figures have also been affected by the rising amounts of young people staying on in education. British youth unemployment (21.8%) is just above the European average (21.5%) but is half that of Spain (47.1%). Austria and Germany however are a third lower, a trend which has been attributed to better intern and apprenticeship schemes run by their governments.