What's it like to be young and unemployed?

Ausima bored and depressed in the park Photograph: Ausima Akram/Mediabox Photograph: Ausima Akram/guardian.co.uk The awkward position Maria has adopted in the left hand photo reflects how she feels about being unemployed: uncomfortable, frustrated and lethargic. She spends a lot of her time on this bench near her home, trying to fill her days. It is in sharp contrast to the picture on the right which shows Maria as a professional at the train station looking smart, eager and ready to go to work Photograph: Maria/Mediabox Photograph: Maria/guardian.co.uk Unemployed young men playing soccer near their house Photograph: Emma Louise Sanders/Mediabox Photograph: Emma Louise Sanders/guardian.co.uk Bored lads in the house Photograph: Emma Louise Sanders/Mediabox Photograph: Emma Louise Sanders/guardian.co.uk Abdifitah looks at building workers busy on a site in Leeds Photograph: Abdifitah Abdulla/Mediabox Photograph: Abdifitah Abdulla/guardian.co.uk Trapped: an unemployed young woman Photograph: Jasmine Walters-Bright/Mediabox Photograph: Jasmine Walters-Bright/guardian.co.uk Unemployed young people at home Photograph: Jayde Phillips/Mediabox Photograph: Jayde Phillips/guardian.co.uk A young woman watches passers-by in Birmingham city centre. The picture aims to show the limitations that living on benefits can have on your life Photograph: Miles Newman-Hadler/Mediabox Photograph: Miles Newman-Hadler/guardian.co.uk A young woman calls about a job interview Photograph: Miles Newman-Hadler/Mediabox Photograph: Miles Newman-Hadler/guardian.co.uk Maria is lying motionless in a disused swimming pool. This represents how she feels when she first wakes up in the morning and has no motivation to move. The pool gives a strange moon-like desolate landscape to the backdrop Photograph: Maria Obee/Mediabox Photograph: Maria Obee/guardian.co.uk Scared: a young, unemployed woman Photograph: Jasmine Walters-Bright/Mediabox Photograph: Jasmine Walters-Bright/guardian.co.uk Ausima Akram watches daytime TV with her little brother at home Photograph: Ausima Akram/Mediabox Photograph: Ausima Akram/guardian.co.uk The scene outside a busy job centre in Leeds. Originally Abdifitah was looking for one person to photograph, but he thought the crowd summed up the unemployment problem Photograph: Abdifitah Abdulla/Mediabox Photograph: Abdifitah Abdulla/guardian.co.uk A young man suffers the stress of unemployment Photograph: Jake Mann/Mediabox Photograph: Jake Mann/guardian.co.uk Young person's under-utilised hands Photograph: Jayde Phillips/Mediabox Photograph: Jayde Phillips/guardian.co.uk Unemployed young man kills time in a housing estate passageway Photograph: Nathaniel Auguste/Mediabox Photograph: Nathaniel Auguste/guardian.co.uk Young unemployed man in children's playground. Nathaniel wanted this picture to show how difficult it can be to find a direction for your adult life. To give the viewers a sense of how being unemployed can make life feel pointless Photograph: Nathaniel Auguste/Mediabox Photograph: Nathaniel Auguste/guardian.co.uk Lonely unemployed young woman by a canal towpath Photograph: Emma Louise Sanders/Mediabox Photograph: Emma Louise Sanders/guardian.co.uk The diary of a young unemployed man. Tony, spends his time writing about his life Photograph: Tony Bennett/Mediabox Photograph: Tony Bennett/guardian.co.uk Sumaya spent two hours outside the Bradford Job Centre trying to get people to agree to have their picture taken for this project. Everyone turned her down except for this man. The man in the photograph is 23 years old. He is a family man who is struggling to keep on top of things. The picture captures his frustration Photograph: Sumaya Arif/Mediabox Photograph: Sumaya Arif/guardian.co.uk