UK unemployment rose by 44,000 to almost 2.5 million in the three months to the end of December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.
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 without jobs.
The unemployment rate is now 7.9%, with youth unemployment running at 20.5%.
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.
What can one say, except it's only going to get worse?
It will until an alternative is adopted.
That alternative is possible. None of this unemployment is necessary. And those young people need not have blighted hopes. That's what's so depressing about all this.
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These are really shocking stats and having lived through one era (1980s) when this was allowed to happen I feel quite alarmed about the present situation and its consequences. Young people unable to find gainful employment will be blighted for the rest of their lives by this experience, and we should not forget that unrest in both Tunisia nad Egypt was initially instigated by the young. Unfortunately at the moment we seem to have an uninspiring political opposition, in fact most of the telling points are being made by individuals such as you and organisations such as UKUncut. The Labour Party is so steeped in the neoliberal mindset that it is incapable of promoting a counter argument. It will be insufficient to merely rely on public discontent with the ConDem Coalition as this is likely to be bought off by tax cuts (hence the front loaded public expenditure cuts). Labour must offer a realistic alternative and explain in simple terms that the constant downward pressure on wages and salaries for the majority has not been experienced by the super wealthy elite who are quite content to see the continuation of the neoliberalism which works to their advantage.
@Teresa Harding
I couldn’t agree more, having also experienced the 1980s – some of it on so called employment schemes – and the fact that my son has recently gone from full-time employment to the dreaded PT (18 hours per week)option rather than be unemployed 😥
I have to say that my hope that Labour might ever buck the neoliberal trend was shaken when I learned that Ed Miliband’s PR person is also ex News International. Given the long-running phone hacking scandal you might have thought Miliband would choose otherwise. Then again….!
Reconstruction, a la post war, is what is needed to get out of this mess. Nationalise the banks.
I just read this http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=96242&CultureCode=en It’s worth a read – according to this University of Kent report ‘The social policy reforms of the coalition government have not only detached the UK from the European family of nations but they have set public spending on a course that will, for the first time, take it below that of the USA.’ !!!!
Youth unemployment has been getting worse since 2002…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/feb/14/youth-unemployment-statistics
@Greg
Oh come on, read it properly
@Richard Murphy
Not sure what you mean? I was trying to point out that perhaps a rise in youth unemployment has been due to other factors.