The number of unemployed people in the UK has exceeded the two million mark for the first time since 1997, official figures confirmed today.
The latest Labour Market figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that unemployment rose by 165,000 to hit 2.03 million in the three months to January 2009.
Businesses made 266,000 redundancies over this period, the highest figure since records began in 1995. The number of vacancies posted fell by 74,000 and the growth in average earnings also fell, compared to the previous quarter.
There has also been a surge in the number of people claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance, which rose by 138,000 to 1.39 million in February. There are 595,600 more claimants now than there were a year ago.
John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), commented:
“These are the most doleful set of UK labour market figures since the start of the recession. Not only is unemployment back to where it was in 1997 but it now looks as though we are heading towards the worst outlook for jobs in the UK’s post-war history.
“The rise in the headline level of unemployment above two million is only part of the sorry story. Much more alarming is a surge in claimant unemployment in February – the monthly increase of 138,000 in the number of people claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance surpasses even the darkest days of rising unemployment in previous recessions.”
Alan Tomlinson, a partner at licensed insolvency practitioners, Tomlinsons, added that industry bodies may have underestimated the scale of the problem.
He said: “I have been an insolvency practitioner since the eighties and have never been so busy. Companies of all sizes, and in all sectors, are folding by the day, putting more and more people out of a job.
“The CBI’s prediction, last month, that unemployment will peak at just over three million in the second quarter of 2010 could prove to be wildly optimistic.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009