Unemployment increases to 2.68 million in December
Wednesday, 18 January 2012 09:50
Unemployment increased further in December, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released today.
There are now 2.68 million people unemployed, a rise of 118,000 in the last quarter and up from 2.64 million in November and the highest number of people unemployed since 1994. The unemployment rate increased to 8.4 per cent, up from 8.3 per cent, its highest level since 1995.
There are now 29.12 million people aged 16-64 who are employed, a rise of 18,000 on the quarter. There are now 9.29 million economically inactive people in the UK aged 16-64, a reduction of 61,000 on the quarter.
The number of full-time employees fell by 57,000 in the past three months to reach 21.26 million but the number in part-time employment rose by 75,000 to 7.86 million.
Howard Archer, Chief UK & European Economist at IHS Global said: “Persistent economic weakness, lower business confidence and mounting public sector job cuts are combining to take a serious toll on jobs.
“Consequently, we expect the number of jobless on the International Labour Organization measure to reach a peak around 2.85 million in the latter months of 2012, which would see the unemployment rate climb close to 9.0%. However, there is a mounting risk that unemployment could rise even higher than 2.85 million and not start falling before 2013.”
Total earnings have increased by 1.9 per cent compared to December 2010 but has fallen by 0.2 per cent in the three months to October 2011 with lower wage growth seen in both the private and public sectors.
Youth unemployment increased to 1.04 million, a rise of 52,000 in the quarter. This figure includes 313,000 people who are in full-time education but looking for work.
Self-employment increased by 101,000 in the last three months to reach 4.12 million. The rise is self-employment continued and there are now more than 300,000 more self-employed people than there were in 1992 when records began.
It is thought that many people who have become self-employed since the economic downturn in 2008 are working in a variety of guises doing odd jobs as a way of avoiding unemployment and that if they were offered employment they would take it.
The rise in self-employment has been an influence on the reduction of employees in traditional PAYE jobs. There are 700,000 less employees in work than there were in 1992. It has also helped soften the blow of public sector job cuts since the coalition came to power in May 2010.
There were 1.60 million people claiming jobseekers allowance in December, up by 1,200 from November. Most economists believe that unemployment is likely to continue to rise to at least 2.85 million during 2012. Depending on the performance of the economy it could start to fall towards the end of the year.
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