Unemployment Rises Yet Again
UK Unemployment has risen yet again and now stands at a staggering 2.51 million after a further 53,000 people were added to the total over the first quarter of this year, according to official figures.
The increase now means that unemployment in this country stands at its highest level in almost 16 years, December 1994 was the last time the figures achieved this amount.
Despite the increase, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit has actually fallen in April. A fall had been expected, however not on the same scale as the 27,100 drop that has occurred. The number of people now claiming unemployment benefit stands at 1.52 million.
The rate of unemployment remained at 8%, the Office for National Statistics said.
A further rise has been seen in the number of people who are classed ‘economically inactive,’ a term used for people who are out of work and no longer actively seeking work. Nearly 100,000 people have been added to the total over the first quarter of the year, meaning the total now stands at a record 8.2 million.
The ONS figures also showed a fairly substantial rise in youth unemployment, with the number of 16 – 24 years olds out of work rising by nearly 20,000 up to 941,000. Meanwhile, the number of over 50s out of work for more than a year has also increased to 146,000, up 12,000 on previous figures.
Furthermore, over a million people have said that they are only in part time employment because they cannot find full time employment.
On a regional scale, Yorkshire/Humberside has seen the worst rise in unemployment, increasing by 18,000. In contrast, the region with the best figures is the South West, seeing a decrease of 6,000.
John Philpott of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said the latest data underlined how tough a challenge the new coalition government faced.
He has said, "The big task for the government is trying to stimulate growth while also cutting the deficit.
"There's nothing to suggest we're going to get a return to anything approaching full employment anytime soon."
And Brian Johnson, an insolvency practitioner at HW Fisher chartered accountants, said that those who had predicted that the worst of unemployment was over were wrong.
"If it were not bad enough already, we can expect significant public sector job losses, as the new government sets about cutting spending immediately in order to reduce the deficit.
"With private sector collapses and public sector cuts, we expect unemployment to continue to rise during the remainder of 2010 and on into 2011."
Posted at 12:38PM May 12, 2010 by Marc Stenton in The Economy | Comments[0]
