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TUC finds new unemployment figures ‘desperate’

UK unemployment rose by 44,000 to almost 2.5 million in the three months to the end of December, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Youth unemployment rose to a fresh record high, with more than one in five 16 to 24-year-olds out of work after a rise of 66,000 to 965,000.

The unemployment rate is now 7.9%, with youth unemployment running at 20.5%.

The Northern branch of the TUC said the new findings were ‘desperately disappointing’.

Northern TUC Regional Secretary, Kevin Rowan said: “Yesterday’s desperately disappointing unemployment figures were only to be expected in light of the government’s slash and burn economic policies.

“They confirm that the Government has been cutting jobs far quicker than it has been helping create them.

“All of the key mechanisms for creating work and building an economic recovery in the North East and Cumbria are either being dismantled or cut.”

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance increased by 2,400 last month to 1.46 million.

The number of people in part-time work because they could not find a full-time job rose by 44,000 to 1.19 million, another high since records began in 1992.

Long-term unemployment also deteriorated, with 17,000 more people out of work for more than a year, to a total of 833,000.

Other data from the ONS showed that average earnings rose by 1.8% in the year to December last year, slightly down on the 2.1% growth in the year to November.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .