Unemployment Rises
Unemployment in Britain jumped to its highest level since 1997 in the three months to September, official data revealed.
The Office for National Statistics said the Labour Force Survey - the broadest measure of joblessness - showed a rise of 140,000 in the third quarter of the year to a total of 1.825 million, the highest level since the final quarter of 1997.
The jobless rate on that measure rose to 5.8%, the highest since the first quarter of 2000.
There was more bad news as the total number of people in work fell by 99,000 in the three months to September to a total of 29.4 million.
The TUC's general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: "The dole queue is now growing by a 1,000 people a day - each one a human tragedy of wasted potential. And the signs are that redundancies are coming even faster since these figures were collected. Countering unemployment must be public policy priority No 1.
"And the newly unemployed are facing a bigger cut in income than in previous recessions. Increasing benefit is the best way of stimulating the economy and will help cushion the financial shock of losing a job."
There were also clear signs that the slowdown in the economy is putting downward pressure on wages. Average earnings rose 3.3% in the third quarter of the year compared to a year ago, the slowest rise since July 2003. The September figure on its own was just 3%, suggesting the headline three-month rate could fall further next month.
"The last recession in the early 1990s saw 31 consecutive monthly rises in unemployment so we are likely to have plenty more bad news on the labour market to come," said James Knightley, economist at ING Financial Markets.
"We suspect (the claimant count) will push towards 2.5 million in 2010. The LFS measure of unemployment currently stands at 1.85 million and this is likely to push above 3 million over the same time period."
www.theguardian.co.uk(Wednesday, November 12, 2008)