UK sees rise in workless households

Friday, 05 November 2010 12:00

The proportion of UK households in which nobody is in work increased last year, according to official data.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed 18.7 per cent of families fell into this category in 2009, up 0.9 percentage points on the previous 12 months.

The area with the highest proportion of workless households was Liverpool at 32.1 per cent.

This represented an increase of 1.2 percentage points on 2008 and marked the second year in a row that the city has topped the ONS table.

Nottingham and Glasgow were second and third on 31.1 per cent and 31 per cent respectively.

At the other end of the scale, Bedfordshire had the lowest proportion of workless households at 9.2 per cent.

According to national figures from the ONS, overall unemployment stood at 2.45 million between June and August of this year.

A further 9.28 million people aged 16 to 64 were classed as being economic inactive.

• Tags:
• news