Unemployment rises again
Number of people unemployed rises to 2.68 million, with youth unemployment increasing again.
Unemployment has risen again, with the latest figures showing it has risen to 2.68 million for the three months to November. This is up from 2.64 million in the three months to October. This is the highest number of people out of work since August 1994.
The unemployment rate is now 8.4% of the economically active population, the highest rate since 1996.
The number of unemployed young people aged 16 to 24 has risen by 52,000 to 1.04 million. This is the highest number since comparable records began in 1992.
The number of self-employed people and people in part-time work continues to rise.
As previously announced, public sector employment fell by 67,000 between June and September, with private sector jobs increasing by 5,000. This is a blow to the Government’s hopes that the private sector would create enough jobs to employ public sector workers made redundant by its spending cuts.
The gloomy figures come after the Federation of Small Businesses warned that small companies will be making redundancies in the first three months of the year.
Meanwhile, the growth rate for pay has fallen by 0.2% but total pay for the three months to November increased by 1.9% on a year earlier. But that’s still well below the current rate of inflation.
Annual private sector pay growth fell from 2.1% to 2% and public sector pay growth fell from 2.1% to 1.9%, the lowest figure since records began.
More: The sectors where jobs are growing | Six top ways to get a pay rise
Most Recent
Comments
-
I am a small business "employer" and I can't afford to employ people - that is the basic bottom line. Even to give someone a virtual starvation wage I have to pay over and above that around 30% extra in National Insurance, Employers Liability Insurance, extra administration and associated costs. And that's before we even start talking about maternity pay, sick pay and all the rest (thank you electicblue for highlighting this issue) So let's be honest about unemployment shall we? I do not include here those poor people, particularly the young, who are genuinely hunting for jobs. But in my experience a great many people who are registered as "unemployed" are working in the grey market for cash for employers who cannot afford to employ them "officially". And those rogue workers can't afford to lose their benefits to be replaced by a tax deducted minimum wage. A shake up of the NI system for small employers and their employees might help!
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
Britain is a huge manufacturing force in the world in numerous high-tech sectors. We don't make a lot of the stuff sold in pound shops, but even that is largely due to the stupidity and greed of retail buyers who immediately assume that all manufactured goods must be far cheaper when made overseas. There is shortage of people with the right skills, there is no shortage of order potential for a lot of manufacturing businesses but successive governments put more and more burden on employers to the point where business expansion does not appeal to smaller employers. It's not so much the cost of direct wages but who would want to employ women assembly workers when the burdens of maternity pay and rights can put you out of business?
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
It is likely to keep rising with immigration from East Europe and elsewhere. There are few satisfactory jobs out there, I do not consider a burger flipper or mobile phone salesperson a job. Manufacturing has been exported to keep the inflation rate down so the Chinese and those other that make our goods are very pleased. The latter also do not have to bother with Europe carbon crap either so a well placed to keep their population in work. The answer? I think it is too late and the standard of living will contnue to fall over time in the UK until people start to migrate out of it as it is too awful for words.
REPORT This comment has been reported.
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature
20 January 2012