In response to the latest labour market statistics published by the ONS earlier this week both the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and The Work Foundation have announced that they expect unemployment to rise when the full impact of the coalition’s public expenditure cuts are fully implemented.
Figures published earlier this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that for the three months to August 2010 the number of unemployed people fell by 20,000 to 2.45million. This means that the UK’s unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 per cent on the previous quarter to 7.7 per cent.
However the number of individuals claiming jobseeker’s allowance increased by 5,300 between August and September to reach 1.47 million. This is the second consecutive monthly increase in the number of claimants.
These findings have initiated fears that unemployment figures will increase again towards the fall of 2010.
Commenting upon these statistics Dr John Philpott, the CIPD’s Chief Economic Advisor, warned that although unemployment rates appear to have settled at a post-recession peak of just under 2.5 million in recent months, the decline in demand for labour signalled by the on-going rise in claimant unemployment and the drop in job vacancies indicates that the job losses total will start to increase again soon.
Mr. Philpott said:
It looks as though the UK will experience a ‘twin peaks’ jobs recession with the second peak higher than the first – closer to 2.9 million than 2.5 million. Indeed, this twin peaks effect is already emerging in the youth labour market which is showing signs of deterioration, with a renewed increase in the number of jobless 18- to 24-year-olds”
Ian Brinkley, the Associate Director of The Work Foundation, said
With economic growth slowing and the full impact of public sector spending cuts still to come, there is a real danger that the job recovery will come to a halt and unemployment start to rise again”
