The Brotherhood of St Laurence said analysis of ABS data released this month found the unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 was an alarming 11.3 per cent across the ACT in the year to January.

The figure, based on a trend analysis, was up from 6.5 per cent in 2008.

Brotherhood executive director Tony Nicholson said the new figures showed a crisis the ACT community could not ignore.

''Youth unemployment at 11.3 per cent in the ACT is a scandal for our young people, our communities and our economy,'' Mr Nicholson said.

''It's a disaster for our young people who want to work but are getting locked out of the workforce and locked into welfare dependency because they have no choice. It's a disaster for communities, leading to more homelessness and despair for young people and their families.''

Mr Nicholson said it also boded poorly for the national economy, with taxpayers set to pay the bill in the form of welfare payouts and lost tax revenue. Youth unemployment has risen across the country, and now sits at 12.4 per cent nationally on a trend basis, up from 9 per cent in January 2008. Overall unemployment - based on 15 to 64 year olds - has also increased in the ACT, but has risen by a smaller rate of 1.2 percentage points in six years, to 3.8 per cent in January.

Mr Nicholson said the transition from school to work was now riskier than ever. ''It's getting harder and harder for young people to land their first job,'' he said.

''I think it's all driven by employers striving to be competitive in an international economy - whereas in years gone by there may well have been entry level jobs that didn't require great entry level skills, didn't require much work experience, that's not the case any more.

''Particularly in industries where technology requires a great deal of experiences, and industries where there are good job opportunities - such as childcare - there are increasing standards to be met.'' The Brotherhood's My Chance, Our Future campaign, launched on Monday, seeks to put youth unemployment in the spotlight, with a focus on ''employability'' skills, work experience, coaching, vocational guidance and connecting with local employers.

Mr Nicholson called on the federal government to implement a program similar to the welfare organisations's youth transitions service pilot program, which had proven successful in initial evaluations.

''It's been well-accepted that the job services system fails young people,'' Mr Nicholson said. ''It's largely a brokering and matching system, it's not equipped to provide people with work experience or mentoring, and the way in which it's structured, it's a very alien environment [for youth unemployed]. It's almost world's best practice in terms of efficiency in getting people into work if they don't have any barriers to work, but where there's complexity - such as for young people - it performs poorly.''

Approaches were made to Federal Employment Minister Eric Abetz and ACT Young People's Minister Joy Burch on Sunday night.