Gen Y in grip of unemployment crisis as jobless rate soars, Centrelink data reveals Christine Harrex and Bec Williamson, both aged 19 and from the Sydney suburb of Camden, have been unemployed since leaving high school. YOUTH unemployment has surged by two-thirds since Labor won power, with 43,000 more young Australians now on the dole. The number of 16 to 21-year-olds living on unemployment benefits has hit 110,830 - up 63 per cent since June 2007, before Kevin Rudd swept into office promising Australians job security. Despite Labor's decree that all young Australians should be "learning or earning," the federal government's own Centrelink data reveals an alarming increase in Youth Allowance payments to those neither working nor studying. And Gen Y graduates have copped the brunt of job losses during the global financial crisis. Unemployment among 20 to 24-year-olds - the group of jobseekers most likely to be qualified and starting their careers - has nearly doubled since 2007, to hit 10.4 per cent in June this year. The jobless rate among school leavers and graduates in parts of Australia is four times higher than the national average of 5.7 per cent in June, Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals. In far north Queensland, 28 per cent of 20 to 24-year-old jobseekers are unemployed, up from 9.1 per cent in November 2007. Youth unemployment in Brisbane's southern and eastern suburbs is nearly 16 per cent, compared to 9 per cent in 2007. The jobless rate for 20 to 24-year-olds has surged from 5.3 per cent to 17.5 per cent on the Sunshine Coast, and from 2.8 per cent to 13.8 per cent on the Gold Coast. In South Australia, the jobless rate for 20 to 24-year-olds has almost doubled from 5.4 per cent in November 2007 to 10 per cent in June 2013. Adelaide's northern suburbs are hardest hit, with 14 per cent of young workers out of job compared to 6.1 per cent before the GFC. In Sydney's central west, one in five jobseekers aged 20 to 24-year-olds is out of work - more than double the rate recorded in 2007. Youth unemployment in the Fairfield-Liverpool area has almost doubled to 16.2 per cent. Spaniards queue at an unemployment registry office in Madrid. Mission Australia chief executive Toby Hall says youth unemployment on the fringes of Australia's capital cities has grown to Spanish crisis levels. The jobless rate more than tripled from 2.2 per cent to 7.6 per cent in Melbourne's southern suburbs, and doubled in the Loddon-Mallee Region from 5.6 per cent to 11.2 per cent. Tasmania's youth jobless rate has more than doubled to 15.9 per cent, from 6.7 per cent in November 2007. Outside Hobart, one in five Tasmanian jobseekers aged 20 to 24 is out of work. Centrelink data shows the number of jobless Australians living on the Newstart allowance has jumped 53 per cent since 2007 - with 239,000 extra people joining the dole queue on Labor's watch, during the global financial crisis. The figure includes the 63,877 single parents who were transferred from the parenting pension to Newstart in January. "There is clearly a crisis here and it needs to get dealt with," he said. The young people who are unemployed today will still be unemployed in 10 years' time and their children will be unemployed too. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry director of employment and education Jenny Lambert yesterday warned youth unemployment would only get worse. Mr Hall said young people needed to be "job ready" and needed more than "feel-good" training. "They need to learn things like turning up on time at work, being able to communicate with peers and supervisors, taking instructions, basic literacy and numeracy skills are all needed but a lot of them are failing," he said. In the absence of proper training, these young people will not get a job. "Locals are up against an increasing number of temporary migrants competing for the same entry level jobs," he said.