TUC: ‘True UK jobless total is 6.3m’

Wednesday, 15 February 2012 09:50

The real number of unemployed people in the UK is 6.3 million if the figures are calculated using America’s formula, latest analysis suggests.

According to the TUC, Britain’s current unemployment tally of 2.68 million would more than double by factoring in issues like underemployment, where people are forced to work part-time because full-time work is not available.

UK jobless calculations define an unemployed person as someone who is out of work and who has actively looked for a new job in the past month.

But the US model has six measures which also account for unemployed people who want to work but have not actively sought a post for six weeks, along with people who are only in part-time work because they cannot find full-time work.

These two additional factors would add a further 3.5 million people to the UK’s jobless figures, the TUC said.

Brendan Barber, the TUC’s general secretary, said: “More than six million people are either out of work or under-employed. Tackling this crisis should be the Government’s number one priority.

“Nearly two million people are being forced to take low-paid, insecure, short hours jobs because of the lack of proper full-time employment.

“This means people are taking home much less pay, which is putting a real strain of family budgets.”

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