Unemployment in Australia rose to a 12-year high in July of 6.4 per cent but the hardest hit are those aged 15 to 24, according to the OECD Employment Outlook 2014.
At 13.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2014, the unemployment rate of young people aged 15-24 has increased by 3.6 points since the end of 2007.
But a bigger problem than unemployment is inactivity. More than one in 10 youth are neither in employment or in education or training.
Over the five years to December 2013, the share of young people doing nothing has increased 2.6 points to reach 11 per cent.
This is why the federal government has been introducing a range of initiatives to increase apprenticeship numbers and workforce participation.
For example, the government will invest $200 million each year to establish a new Australian Apprenticeship Support Network which will commence on July 1, 2015.
Rising unemployment has also put the brakes on wage growth. Starting from the second quarter of 2012, the OECD report claims real wage growth in Australia has slowed dramatically.
Over the 12 months to December 2013, real hourly wages fell by 0.5 points, as nominal earnings growth was outpaced by inflation. Data for Australia for the second quarter of 2014 suggests real wages have fallen even further.
The report said unemployment will remain well above its pre-crisis levels next year in most OECD countries despite modest declines over the rest of 2014 and 2015.
Average jobless rates in OECD countries will decrease slightly over the next 18 months from 7.4 per cent in mid-2014 to 7.1 per cent at the end of 2015.
Long term unemployment has likely peaked, the report said but over one in three of the unemployed have been out of work for 12 months or more in the first quarter of 2014, almost double the number at the start of the GFC.
Australia is currently hosting the G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting in Melbourne. The meeting is a forum for G20 members to discuss action on creating jobs and boosting employment.
The G20 represents 85 per cent of the world's economic activity and two thirds of the world's population. Australia's Minister for Employment, Eriz Abetz, hosted a joint press conference yesterday where the UK's Employment Minister, Esther McVey, said the youth unemployment is a shared problem.
"In the UK what we have found is the biggest fall in youth unemployment since records began, so we are working with employers to find out what we need to do," he said.
The United States Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez, said the US has seen 54 consecutive months of private sector job growth to the tune of over 10 million jobs.
"That's the longest streak of private sector job growth on record, and we've been keeping record since about 1940," he said.