Perilous
Times
UK jobless rate has largest rise in two years
September 14, 2011 - 9:29PM
PAA
The outlook for the UK's economic recovery has darkened as a surge
in jobless youths triggered the largest increase in unemployment
in nearly two years.
The country's jobless rate stood at 2.51 million or 7.9 per cent
between May and July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
said, after the total number of unemployed increased by 80,000.
This was the largest quarterly increase in unemployment since the
three months to August 2009, while economists had expected a rise
of around 70,000.
Within these figures, the number of unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds
surged by 77,000 to 769,000, the ONS said.
Elsewhere, the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance
increased by 20,300 to 1.58 million in August, the highest level
of claimants since January 2010.
Average earnings increased by 2.8 per cent between May and July,
up by 0.1 per cent over the previous month, with weekly wages now
averaging 464.
While this was the largest rise since April 2010, the increase in
average wages was driven by higher bonuses in the financial sector
and still falls far behind the high rate of inflation, which stood
at 4.4 per cent in July and increased to 4.5 per cent in August.
Wednesday's figures came as a report from think-tank IPPR warned
that the UK faces a "long and difficult" path back to full
employment, with up to two million jobs needed to be created to
return to pre-recession levels.
The number of employed people fell between May and July by 69,000
to 29.17 million, driven by public sector job cuts, which was the
biggest fall since the quarter to March 2010.
The number employed in the public sector fell by 111,000 between
March and June to reach 6.04 million, the largest fall since
records began in 1999. In June, the public sector accounted for
20.7 per cent of all people in employment, the lowest level since
September 2008.