Employment minister Mark Hoban said the fall in youth unemployment was particularly welcome Jon Moulton, chairman of investment firm Better Capital, said the fact that businesses are being kept artificially alive is a problem. He told the BBC that in previous recessions they would have been 'tossed into the bonfire and something better emerges', but 'the Darwin system' is not happening. 'About 10 per cent of the private sector workforce are working in companies which should have been sorted out,' Mr Moulton said. 'That is one of the reasons the economy is not recovering quickly. We need failure as part of the solution.' According to R3, the industry group that represents insolvency practitioners, there are as many  as 146,000 zombie businesses in  the UK. Despite the weak state of the economy, the Bank's report said that employment in the private sector remains 'puzzlingly robust'. At present, 23.9million people work in the private sector, the largest number since records began, although many are having to work part-time unwillingly. David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the report paints 'a grim but realistic outlook for the UK economy'. Supermarket giant Tesco received a staggering 8,000 applicants for 400 jobs at a brand new store opening later this month. It means 20 people were chasing every single job at the new branch. The new store is opening in Woolwich, South East London, which is an area renowned for its high levels of unemployment. Greenwich Council says that 65 per