UNEMPLOYMENT is at its highest since 1996 and will take years to fall back, experts have warned today.

Unemployment has soared to more than 2.2 million after a record number of people lost their jobs in recent months.

Latest figures show the grim toll of joblessness caused by factory closures and mass redundancies.

Worse still, youth unemployment is at a 15 year high as young people struggle to find work in a highly competitive labour market.

Although the North-East appears to be bucking the trend - recording a 6,000 fall in the number of job seekers - experts believe the region is simply lagging a few months behind other areas and will see a surge later this year.

They say there is no room for self congratulation as the North-East already has the second worst overall unemployment rate in the the country, just behind the West Midlands.

Nationally, the jobless total increased by 232,000 in the three months to April to reach 2.26 million, the worst figure since the end of 1996.

The number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance increased by 39,300 in May to 1.54 million, the highest total since the summer of 1997.

The so-called claimant count has now increased for 15 months in a row.

Other figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that youth unemployment has reached its worst level since 1994 after a 74,000 increase in the number of 18 to 24-year-olds out of work to 695,000.

Long term unemployment, counting those out of work for more than a year, increased by 54,000 in the latest quarter to a 10-year high of 515,000.

Meanwhile, the number of people in work fell by 271,000 over the three months to 29.11 million, the biggest quarterly slump since comparable records began in 1971.

Public sector employment increased by 15,000 to more than six million - the highest since comparable records began in 1999 - although most of the increase was because of banking working switching from the private sector under the Government’s rescue.

More than 300,000 people were made redundant in the three months to April, an increase of 36,000 on the previous quarter and the highest total since records began in 1995.

The number of workforce jobs was 31 million in March, down by 108,000 on the quarter, while vacancies fell by 38,000 in the quarter to April to 444,000, another record low.

The number of people classed as economically inactive, including those who have given up looking for work, increased by 92,000 in the latest quarter to 7.89 million, a fifth of the working age population.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Economists may argue about whether we are now out of recession and into recovery, but in the real world of Britain’s workplaces people are still losing their jobs and finding it harder and harder to get new ones.

“Unemployment is now at its highest level since Autumn 1996 and it will take years, not months, to recover. If we are to avoid the 10 per cent unemployment rates of the 1980s and 1990s it is imperative the Government continues to invest in tackling unemployment.

“Youth unemployment is now at its highest rate for 15 years. And it will get far worse when millions of fresh school leavers and graduates start looking for work in the coming weeks.

“Unemployment leaves a permanent scar on young people’s lives and Government must do all it can to stop joblessness blighting another generation’s lives.

“The Government’s job guarantee should soon start to help young people who lost their jobs at the start of the recession – it’s exactly the right priority. But people leaving school or college this summer will need help with training and advice long before the 12 months that they will have to wait for the jobs guarantee.”