Last year I predicted unemplyment would rise to 4 million before this recession was over.
Unemployment rose to 2.5 million last month.
1 in 5 of our young people is unemployed – destroying hopes, skills and prospects, as evidence shows in many cases for life.
I stand by my forecast – thousands more job losses in local authorities were announced yesterday, and all of them will have knock on effects.
No one – not one serious commentator – believes the private sector is picking up the slack. VAT increases, inflation (even if we can’t and should not do anything about it), pay freezes, cuts, and fear – coupled with the absolute reluctance of the private sector to invest – guarantees that.
This government has been and is pursuing an economic policy that is guaranteed to fail.
The only question is how long will we be forced to endure it – and how radical will the steps to corect it need to be?
2 Responses to “2.5 million unemployed – and rising”
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There is also a lot of disguised unemployment in the form of people working part-time who would rather be working full-time but have had their hours reduced. As a temporary measure this is probably much more equitable than the kind of huge shake-out job losses we’ve seen in the US, but in the longer run, it’s disguised long-term unemployment. Really worrying stuff and symptomatic of a weak recovery from the recession.
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