Gordon Brown has assured the young jobless in Leicestershire he is doing everything he can to help them in to work – despite soaring unemployment figures.

The Prime Minister said high numbers of young people lining up in the county's dole queues were a result of the global economic crisis and that it would be "unfair" to blame the Government.

There are now 6,740 benefit claimants aged between 18 and 24 in the county – more than double the number of 12 months ago.

Mr Brown made his comments on the eve of a visit to Leicester today, when he will meet with young people working on an apprenticeship scheme and answer their questions.

He said: "Now we are at a stage where we are looking at what we can do with the economy to move out of recession into growth.

"What we want to do now is help young people leaving school – and that will help people in Leicester. We want to give them a school place or college place or work experience.

"We want to help people between 18 and 24 that have been out of work for more than year – because we do not want the long-term unemployment that darkened the 1980s."

The Prime Minister's trip today is part of a regional tour. It has been launched to raise awareness of the Government's Building Britain's Future strategy – a plan of how Mr Brown wants to spend public money over the next year.