One in five unemployed young people in the UK feel that finding a job within the next year is ‘unachievable’, reveals a survey from charity Prince’s Trust and bank RBS.

Additionally, one in three have not received any responses to job applications in the past year.

This is according to a YouGov survey of 250 young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs), of whom 72% think finding work is harder than ever.

It also spoke with 200 young entrepreneurs, of whom 55% are more positive about their career than they were a year ago. Of these self-employed young people, 13% said they set up a business because they could not find a job.

Martina Milburn, chief executive of The Prince's Trust, says: "It remains a difficult time for the young unemployed and the longer they are out of work the more likely they are to sink into a spiral of disappointment and depression. Setting up in business can be an escape route out of the dole queue for these young people, and a route to success."