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