That is why I am asking the question Nigel.
Then in answer to the question: are the 1.2 million (plus) registered as unemployed part of the 3.4 million who, seemingly have NEVER actually been employed.
The answer has to be that it is impossible to say without having a view of the underlying figures, and even then you'd probably need some form of a Venn diagram to explain the results.
To start, with 8.2 million pupils in school, it would be a reasonable (first approximation) estimate that with school age 4-18 then 2/14 of that number (1.17 million) are 16 & 17 year olds. With the great fall in youth employment (paper rounds etc.) this would be a good start toward the figures quoted.
The figures would also include young mothers who left school to immediately set up home.
I will avoid taking this as anything other than a question with no political bias, although Steve Shaw wants to swing it that way.