SOUTH Cheshire MP Edward Timpson has expressed alarm at news that youth unemployment is at a record high.

In Crewe and Nantwich last month a third of people claiming Job Seekers’ allowance benefits were between 18 and 24.

Some 825 young people were claiming the allowance, almost twice as many as in the same month last year.

Mr Timpson said he was ‘deeply worried’ that society was in danger of failing a generation of young people.

He said: “I meet many young people who tell me there just aren’t enough jobs and apprenticeships out there for them.

"It’s not that they don’t want to work, it’s that no one is giving them the opportunity.

“The number of young people forced to claim Job Seekers’ allowance in Crewe and Nantwich has more than tripled in the life of this Government.

"We urgently need more jobs and apprenticeships so that we can emerge stronger from the recession.”