THE number of young people claiming out-of-work benefits in the city has more than doubled since March, according to new figures.

The total number of 18-to-24-year-olds claiming Universal Credit or Jobseeker's Allowance doubled in Worcester in the last three months.

The number of young people claiming out-of-work benefits in June was 760 - seven per cent of the city's 18-to-24-year-old population.

The number of young people claiming for out-of-work benefits has risen from three per cent in March when the lockdown brought on by the coronavirus first started with the closures of pubs, cafes and restaurants all contributing to the increase.

The figures showed 760 of the city's 11,176 18-to-24-year-olds had claimed for out-of-work benefits in June.

Worcester MP Robin Walker said the increase in youth unemployment was "deeply concerning" and said it was important the government supported businesses which were willing to take on more young people and apprentices.

"This is a key moment when businesses are coming out of lockdown and we want to try and encourage people to take on younger people and look at apprenticeships," he said.

"It's a vital part of the package that the Chancellor announced a few weeks ago.

"We need to make sure we do support businesses that choose to recruit apprentices and make sure there is specific support there for those who do recruit people under the age of 25.

"We need to make sure that we deal with that as quickly as possible and create job opportunities for young people so that we don't end up with a long-term period of youth unemployment.

"It's deeply concerning whenever any sort of unemployment increases, particularly so with young people, and we have got to try and make sure that we can create a safe economy where as many of those young people as possible can get back to work.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed a £2 billion 'kickstart scheme' to create more jobs for young people earlier this month.

The fund will subsidise six-month work placements for people on Universal Credit aged between 16 and 24 and who are at risk of long-term unemployment.

In the UK, 2.6 million people are currently claiming Universal Credit or Jobseekers' Allowance and are required to "seek work."

A fifth of those - 514,770 young people - are aged between 18 and 24.

The number of young new claimants who have signed on between March and June is 276,000 - more than doubling over three months.