Unemployment reaches 2.64m, highest level since September 1994

Unemployment increased to the highest level since 1994 in November, according to official figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today.

There are now 2.64 million people unemployed, an increase of 128,000 in the last quarter. There are now 29.11 people aged 16-64 who are working, a fall of 63,000. The unemployment rate increased by 0.4 per cent to 8.3 per cent, its highest level since 1996.

The number of full-time jobs lost was down by 55,000 on the three months to the end of July 2011 and the number of part-time jobs lost in the same period was 8,000.

Howard Archer, Chief UK & European Economist at IHS Global Insight said:  "We expect the number of jobless on the International Labour Organization measure to reach a peak around 2.85 million in the third quarter of 2012, which would see the unemployment rate climb to around 9.0%."

Youth unemployment increased again, by 54,000 in the quarter to reach 1.03 million, the highest level since comparable records began in 1992.

The fall in public sector employment has not been matched by a rise in private sector job creation, a clear failing of the government’s employment policy and the predictions of many leading organisations when the coalition government announced its deficit reduction strategy that would involve the culling of over half a million public sector jobs.

In the last quarter, 67,000 public sector jobs went and were replaced by just 5,000 private sector jobs. There are now 5.99 million people employed in the public sector, the lowest number since September 2003.

The number of economically inactive people aged between 16 and 64 fell by 54,000 to 9.33 million.

Both private and public sector saw a slowing in wage growth. Overall wage levels are up by two per cent on 12 months ago but down by 0.3 per cent on the three months to the end of September 2011.

Daniel Callaghan, from MBAandCo.com said: “There was a grim sense of inevitability about these figures. Accompanied by a steady drumbeat of bad economic news, 128,000 people joined the dole queue.
“And the government's hope that the private sector would ride to the rescue of those being made redundant by the public sector is fading fast. While public sector jobs fell by 67,000, the private sector took on a meagre 5,000 new staff.”

A large increase in the number of people registered as self-employed occurred in the quarter with the number rising by 166,000 to 4.14 million.

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