Unemployment soars to 2.5 million
Employment levels in the UK have fallen by 0.3% over the last quarter, according to Office of National Statistics. The decrease equates to 49, 000 more people over the age of 16 who have not be able to find employment between September 2010 to November 2010.
157, 000 people were made redundant in the same time-frame, a rise of 14, 000 on the quarter. Self-employment has reached a record high, increasing by 112,000 on the quarter to 4.03 million. The level of unemployed 16-24 year-olds employees has also hit a record high of 951, 000, a increase of 32, 000 on the quarter.
The Employment Minister, Chris Grayling MP commented:
“These figures serve to underline the scale of the challenge we face. We inherited the largest budget deficit in peacetime history and high levels of worklessness, which we are determined to bring down by rebalancing the economy and supporting private sector jobs growth – we are already seeing some improvement in the number of vacancies in the economy.
“More personalised support for jobseekers will be on offer through Jobcentre Plus and for the long term unemployed who need extra help we are introducing our Work Programme in the summer, which will offer support tailored to individual’s needs so that they can get into jobs and stay there.”
During Prime Minister’s Question Time, David Cameron said, “there are some very disappointing figures particularly with youth unemployment”, but asserted that the Future Jobs Fund was too expensive and ineffective.
Again there is a trend in variance of men and women seeking Jobseekers Allowance. During November and December 2010 there was an increase of 2, 500 women claiming JSA, whereas the number of male claimants fell by 6, 600.
Kuki Taylor
Research and Communications Officer
Website: ONS, DWP, BBC
Source:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=12
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/press-releases/2011/jan-2011/dwp006-11.shtml
