The number of people out of work rose to almost two million towards the end of last year, the highest total since 1997, official figures confirmed today.
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the latest stats on the labour market confirm that the UK economy slid into recession in November last year.
The number of unemployed people rose to 1.92 million in the three months to November 2008, the highest figure since September 1997. This marks an increase of 131,000 over the quarter, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed. The unemployment rate was 6.1%.
Analysts are now certain that the two million mark was crossed in December and is continuing to rise, following high-profile job cuts at businesses such as Woolworths, Zavvi, Barclays and M&S.
The number of people on the dole also swelled to 1.16 million in December. This is the highest it’s been since January 2000, the ONS said.
“Overall, today’s figures confirm that the labour market was in recession before the turn of the year,” said John Philpott, chief economist at the CIPD.
“Unemployment rose to 6.1% – well above the rate the economy can safely sustain when growing at normal capacity. The autumn saw a surge in redundancies even before the spate of widespread job cuts that started to hit the headlines this month. For the first time in this downturn every sector of the economy registered a fall in vacancies.”
However, he added that the worst is yet to come.
“We are entering the dark days and should be prepared for a depressing period when – as in the 1980s and 1990s recessions the benefit claimant count will rise by more than 100,000 each month.”
“Even on the most optimistic of scenarios around one in 10 people will be unemployed by the time the jobs recovery begins.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009