Telstra chairwoman Catherine Livingstone has labelled Australia's youth unemployment levels a "tragedy" and called on government and business to work together to tackle the issue.
Speaking at a lunch of business leaders in Sydney, Ms Livingstone identified youth unemployment as the major issue facing the country.
"The numbers are absolutely shocking, if you look at the age group of 17-24 year olds, 27 per cent are neither in employment nor full-time study," she told the Australian Futures Project lunch.
"We should all be alarmed at that statistic."
Ms Livingstone is one of Australia's most senior business leaders, having previously been chief executive of hearing implants maker Cochlear, chairwoman of the CSIRO and a director of Macquarie Group.
She said the issue of youth unemployment was too difficult for government or business to solve on their own but said a collaborative approach could make inroads into the problem.
"Together we could really address it," she said.
"For us to have that cohort of unemployed in what is the part of their lives that determines their economic wellbeing for the rest of their life, that is a tragedy for those individuals and a tragedy for the country."
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