Young people are bearing the brunt of the current jobs crisis, with 22.6 per cent of youths in the euro area unemployed according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In Spain, Italy and the Slovak Republic, the unemployment rate for people aged 15-24 continued to rise in July 2012, hitting new highs of 52.9 per cent, 35.3 per cent and 37.8 per cent respectively.

In July 2012 there were 47.9 million people unemployed in the OECD area, 13.1 million more than in July 2008. Of these, 11.9 million were youths.

Overall, the unemployment rate for the OECD area increased slightly to 8 per cent in July 2012, compared with 7.9 per cent the previous month, according to the figures.

Spain currently has the highest unemployment rate in the 32-country body at 25.1 per cent, followed by Portugal at 15.7 per cent and Ireland at 14.9 per cent.

By contrast, unemployment rates remained below 5.5 per cent in Australia, Austria, Germany, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico and the Netherlands.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) area covers Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.