Unemployment rises to 14-year high

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 10:05

UK unemployment rose by 88,000 in the three months to August to 2.47 million.

This puts the jobless rate at 7.9 per cent and unemployment at its highest in 14 years.

Some 233,000 redundancies were recorded and the Jobseeker's Allowance claimant count stood at 1.63 million in September.

The number of people deemed to be "economically inactive" rose by 50,000 to 7.97 million.

Work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper said: "These figures show families across the country are still being affected by the global recession.

"Although unemployment isn't as high today as many feared it would be at the time of the Budget, it remains a serious problem."

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) warns the proportion of men in work fall further than women if there is - as the body describes - a "jobs light recovery".

The number of unemployed men has increased by 50 per cent in the recession so far and the number of unemployed women is up by 33.4 per cent.

By 2010, one in ten men could be unemployed - peaking at 11 per cent being out of work.

Youth employment and the level of black men unemployed are also creating worrying inequalities in this recession.

CIPD calculates one in five 18-24 year old men are unemployed and almost one in five black men are unemployed, more than double the unemployment rate for white British men.

Dr John Philpott, CIPD chief economist, said: "A focus on the relatively hard impact of the recession on men should not detract from the absolute deterioration in the labour market situation facing both sexes.

"Indeed, it is likely that the relative position of women will itself deteriorate in the coming decade as real cuts in public expenditure have an adverse impact on public sector employment.

"However, it is important to highlight the current plight of men in the labour market, not least because once the impact of recession and a 'jobs-light' recovery is fully felt the proportion of UK men in work will probably have fallen to a record low."

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