As The Guardian reports this morning:
In a blow for the chancellor before Wednesday's spending review, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate increased to 4.6% in the three months to the end of April, up from 4.5% on the previous three-month period to hit the highest level since summer 2021.
Growth? What growth, you might reasonably ask.
Reeves has done her best to destroy it.
Trump is doing exactly the same thing.
The extreme centrists and the far right are combining to destroy the hopes of billions of people around the world that they might, and then only might, have sufficient income to live on.
What a mess.
If only we could have governments that put caring for people at the epicentre of their concern.
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According to the media jobs job vacancies have fallen by 63k down to 736k, I don’t believe there are currently 736k vacancies in the UK. Alot of industries routinely use agencys for their recruitment and not just one, so for every legitimate position, this has probably been re-advertised multiple times.
Agreed
I do find these statistics interesting, as with all government statistics in fairness, as I feel they are a number of months (?) behind the reality on the ground. In my sector (life sciences) for example, as with other sectors, it seems to be struggling a lot with unemployment (anecdotally) and seeming to be very high (higher than this)…
Any growth that is reported is as usual pointless for the average citizen, with growth only benefiting the wealthiest. Ask any normal family in the UK and they will tell you they are not feeling any growth.
I can only see a recession/depression coming in the next couple of years, especially when you use history to predict the future…
The economy is flatlining. Rachel from accounts is not making any sensible attempts to revive the economy.
The question is how severe will the impending recession be?
Rising I employment does mean that the government can spend more without worrying about inflation at the moment. Whether that money comes from taxing wealth (not a wealth tax), or borrowing from the Bank of England, the government could, and should spend more. And soon.
Growth….what growth….pretty much nails it.
There are circa 1.5 million unemployed in the UK, circa 9 million (16-64) economically inactive. While appx a third of the inactive are students, another third are long-term sick. If (for arguments sake) 50% of the unemployed can never work and 50% of the third inactive could be tempted into work that means 2.25 million people are needing jobs. Taking the figure of 736k vacancies as given then if all these were filled (leaving aside issues of square pegs in round holes, over/under qualification etc) that still leaves circa 1.5 million people with no hope of work.
Can any of us realistically see this government or the private sector doing anything to remedy this situation…..and what is supposed to happen to those people in the mean time?
I don’t get it. I don’t understand the mentality. I am totally befuddled by the lack of care and compassion being displayed by Rachel Reeves and the rest of Labour. I’m finding it extremely difficult to come to terms with the fact that they really really do not care about the lives of the people they were elected to serve
Don’t worry.
They won’t be elected to serve a second term. Not for a long, long, long time.
Unemployment rising is good for our elites because it keeps the rest of us under control.
Labour’s leadership probably thinks they just need to go “further and faster”!
Expect more difficulties in trying to claim welfare support.
They want to replace the Tories as the party of choice and this means being nasty while saying they are being supportive.