UNEMPLOYMENT figures among Hampshire’s young have nearly doubled in the past 12 months and will cost taxpayers £15m this year the Daily Echo can reveal.

The soaring number of 18-24- year-olds out of work in the county means the state is paying out nearly £300,000 a week in jobseekers’ benefits.

And experts believe the figure is set to rise even further as the recession takes hold.

Worried charities say that with more than 5.5 per cent of the county’s 103,000 18-24 year olds out of work, they will struggle to cope with demands as disadvantaged young people seek help.

The statistics come just a day after the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reported that nearly half of all firms wouldn’t be taking on graduates or school leavers this year.

In the past 12 months, the New Forest has seen its Jobseekers’ Allowance claims from under-25s leap 155 per cent, meaning 5.6 per cent of the district’s 18 to 24-yearolds are unemployed.

In Southampton alone, out-ofwork benefit payments now cost taxpayers almost £90,000 a week.

The bill has jumped 73 per cent in the last 12 months and now stands at more than £4.6m a year.

That increase is less than the national average of 80 per cent, but reveals that in February this year there were 1,765 young people out of work in the city.

Gavin Silver, from the Hampshire-based Wheatsheaf Trust, which runs successful programmes to help people into training and work, admitted he wasn’t surprised by the figures.

“The recession is always going to hit those already most disadvantaged in the labour market,”

he said. “They’re the ones who struggle in a normal economy, so the squeeze is greater on them.”

The Prince’s Trust, which produced the figures, believes more money must be given to organisations helping young disadvantaged people.

Simon Fulford of the charity said: “Our region’s most vulnerable youngsters will be permanently damaged by the downturn, unless they receive the support they need now.”