UK Unemployment on the Rise

The National Office of Statistics has announced that the UK employment rate fallen and the number of people unemployed has risen by a record 281,000 to 2.38 million during March to May of this year.

UK unemployment has now increased to 7.6% the highest for 10 years and is currently predicted to continue to increase. More recent figures from June show 1.56 million people claiming unemployment benefit an increase of 23,800.

However, this rise in unemployment is not a sign that the recession is getting worse in fact many economists feel the economic situation may be stabilising, with the recession bottoming-out. Even so economists still expect unemployment to continue rising this year, as financial uncertainty persists.

Hardest hit at the moment are the young, under 24’s having seen the highest increase in unemployment for 16 years.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said:

"It's particularly worrying that over half a million unemployed people have been out of work for at least a year, including 133,000 young unemployed people.

With a new generation of school and college leavers soon starting to look for work, our unemployment crisis will get even bigger.”

In addition to the unemployment figures it also appears that the number of jobs available has also fallen. Vacancies have dropped to a record low of 429,000 from April to June, down by 35,000 from the previous quarter.

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This Latest News article was created on 15th July 2009