The economic pessimists were proven wrong for once today - albeit slightly - as unemployment did not quite pass the two million mark as some predicted it would.
The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed that in the UK has gone up and is now at its highest level since Labour came to power in 1997.
The number of unemployed people in the UK is now 1.971 million, according to the ONS figures for the three months to December. Also, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit rose by 73,900 last month – faster than at any time since February 2000.
However, some analysts say that there is more bad news to come and that the government isn’t doing enough to help small businesses.
“The hope is that the latest unemployment statistics are the top of the cycle although the fear is that they are the tipping point,” said Desirie Lea, a partner at Morris & Co chartered accountants.
“A large proportion of the redundancies taking place are arising from small and medium-sized companies, which are getting little, if any, help from the government.”
Lea said that the lack of funding was crushing viable businesses and that businesses needed more assistance on the investment front.
“As is happening in Europe and elsewhere, the government urgently needs to provide grants, funding and incentives to companies to keep as many people employed as possible, which would avoid the financial costs of high unemployment, the personal costs and speed up the economic recovery.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009