Unemployment rises to 2.62 million, youth levels breach 1 million
Wednesday, 16 November 2011 09:49
Unemployment increased to 2.62 million for the three months to the end of September, an increase of 129,000 for the quarter, according to the latest figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today.
Unemployment in those aged 16-24 increased to 1.02 million. This means that 21.9 per cent of young people are now economically inactive, an increase of 1.7 per cent on the three months to the end of June.
Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers said: “These shocking figures on youth unemployment come at a time when the Government is inflicting severe cuts on 16-19 education.
“The Coalition must put reducing youth unemployment at the centre of the political agenda. It is a disgrace that it is almost as expensive to keep a young person out of work as it is to create a job for them.”
This takes unemployment to the highest levels seen since 1994 and the unemployment rate increased to 8.3 per cent, the highest level since 1996. There were 9.36 million economically inactive people aged from 16 to 64, up by 64,000 from the last quarter.
29.07 million people aged over 16 were employed in the quarter from July to September, a fall of almost 200,000. The rate of employment for those aged 16-64 dropped to 70.2, down by 0.4 per cent.
Howard Archer, Chief UK & European Economist for forecasters IHS Global Insight said: “There was a very sharp drop of 197,000 in employment and a marked rise of 129,000 in unemployment in the three months to September on the International Labour Organization measures.
“We expect unemployment to continue to rise through to the middle of 2012 at least as public sector jobs are pared and private sector companies limit their employment in the face of muted economic activity.”
Average earnings increased by 2.3 per cent overall on a year ago, though this was down 0.4 per cent on the three months to the end of August. Both the private and public sector showed lower levels of pay rises. Regular pay increased by 1.7 per cent, down by 0.1 per cent on the three months to the end of August 2011.
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