Euro areaYoung people are bearing the brunt of the jobs crisis, with 22.6 per cent of young people 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 this July, hitting new highs of 52.9 per cent, 35.3 per cent and 37.8 per cent respectively.

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

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

Spain 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.