LONDON - Unemployment in the United Kingdom rose in the three months through September as joblessness among young people climbed above 1 million for the first time since at least 1992.

Unemployment as measured by International Labour Organization standards rose by 129,000 to 2.62 million, the biggest increase since 2009, the Office for National Statistics said in London on Wednesday.

The jobless rate climbed to a 15-year high of 8.3 percent. The number of unemployment-benefit claims rose 5,300 to 1.6 million in October. Economists had forecast an increase of 21,000, according to the median of 24 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

"If it's bad now, it's only going to get worse from here," said Alan Clarke, an economist at Scotia Capital in London, before the report. "You have the biggest financial crisis since the war, and our main trading partner is going to have a recession. A recession in the UK is extremely likely."

The number of people in employment fell by 197,000 in the latest quarter, the most since May-July 2009, the statistics office said.

The number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose for an eighth month in October, leaving the claimant-count rate at 5 percent. Jobless claims in September rose by 13,400 instead of the 17,500 previously reported.

In the three months through September, unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds increased by 67,000 to 1.02 million, the highest since comparable records began in 1992. The jobless rate in that category was a record 21.9 percent.

"Levels of youth unemployment have reached a crisis point," said Matthew Freeman, a commercial manager of communities and young people at Working Links, an organization that delivers programs to help get people back to work. "With over a million young people out of work, we risk creating a lost generation of young Britons."

The UK government will pay small companies a 1,500 pound ($2,370) incentive to take on apprentices, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced on Wednesday.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said on Monday that an index of UK employers' hiring intentions weakened as the crisis in the eurozone damped demand for labor.

Europe's economic expansion failed to accelerate in the third quarter, with gross domestic product growing 0.2 percent, as the region braces for a recession sparked by the debt crisis.

In the UK, surveys this month showed manufacturing output shrank in October and services growth cooled.

Average earnings growth slowed to 2.3 percent in the three months through September from 2.7 percent in the period through August. Excluding bonus payments, the rate fell to 1.7 percent from 1.8 percent.

Bloomberg News