Despite recent falls in unemployment levels in the UK, the number of jobless could rise by some 200,000 people next year, it has been predicted.
And according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which made the forecast, young people are once again set to suffer the brunt of an increase in unemployment.
It comes after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) released a report predicting that the unemployment level will not peak until 2014 and might not get back to where it is now until the end of 2015.
According to the IPPR’s analysis of the OBR data, unemployment could rise by around 200,000 people in 2013.
Furthermore, this rise is likely to have a particularly severe impact on the workplace inclusion of young people, with the think tank predicting an extra 86,000 of those aged under 25 could find themselves out of work next year.
The long-term unemployed could also be disproportionately affected, with the IPPR predicting that the number of long-term jobless could rise by 32,000 to a total of 926,000 in 2013.
“While unemployment has been falling over recent months, the latest forecast from the OBR suggests that worse is to come,” said, IPPR researcher Spencer Thompson.
“The outlook is especially bleak for young people and the long-term unemployed. Hundreds of thousands are at risk of permanent ‘scarring’ in the labour market: having their long-term outlook damaged by long periods of unemployment or by a difficult and patchy entry into the world of work.”
The IPPR called on the government to introduce new measures to help boost the inclusion in the workplace of these two vulnerable groups.
“The government should guarantee a job, paid at the minimum wage or above, to anyone who has been out of work and claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for more than 12 consecutive months,” said Mr Thompson.
“If people do not want to take up this offer, they should be expected to find an alternative that does not involve claiming JSA.”
