Recovery hit by rise in jobless - but Yorkshire dole queue shrinks

BRITAIN’S economic recovery hopes were dealt a blow today as official figures revealed an unexpected increase in the number of unemployed people.

The country’s jobless rate stood at 2.49 million or 7.9% between April and June, the Office for National Statistics said, after the total number of unemployed increased by 38,000. Economists had expected a fall of around 10,000.

But in Yorkshire the figure was down by eight per cent, or 21,000, to 223,000

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Within the figures, the number of unemployed women hit levels not seen in more than 23 years.

Elsewhere, the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance showed the biggest monthly rise in more than two years, increasing by 37,100 to 1.56 million people.

Average earnings increased by 2.6% in the year to June, up by 0.3 percentage points over the previous month, with weekly wages now averaging £462.

While this was the largest rise since April last year, the increase in average wages was driven by a bumper period for private sector bonuses and still falls far behind the high rate of inflation, which stood at 4.2% in June and increased to 4.4% in July.

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Today’s figures come as George Osborne is rolling out tough public sector spending cuts - which include hundreds of thousands of job losses.

The Chancellor is banking on a healthy private sector to pick up the slack in the economy but recent figures showing sluggish 0.2% growth in the second quarter have raised fears over the strength of the recovery.

Elsewhere, large companies, including Britain’s biggest banks, have announced plans to cut tens of thousands of jobs across the UK over the coming year.

The number of people unemployed for up to six months increased by 66,000 over the quarter to reach 1.23 million - the largest quarterly increase in two years.

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The number of unemployed men increased by 18,000 to 1.45 million, while the jobless women increased by 21,000 to 1.05 million - the highest figure since May 1988.

The number of employees working part-time because they could not find a full-time job increased by 83,000 on the quarter to reach 1.26 million - the highest figure since comparable records began in 1992.

The number of men claiming JSA increased by 21,500 to reach 1.05 million and the number of women claimants increased by 15,600 to reach 512,700, the highest figure since April 1996.

Some 154,000 people were made redundant, up 32,000 over the quarter - with the increase mainly occurring among women, the ONS said.

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The employment rate in the UK for those aged between 16 and 64 increased by 25,000 in the three months to June to 29.27 million or a rate of 70.7%.

The number of employed people is still 307,000 lower than the pre-recession peak of 29.57 million recorded in the three months to May 2008.

Elsewhere, today’s figures revealed the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds was 20.2%, up 0.2 percentage points from the three months to March.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at financial services information company Markit, said: “Survey data indicate that unemployment is likely to continue to rise in coming months as private sector employers fail to make up for public sector job cuts.”

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Mr Williamson said recent surveys showed companies reducing their headcounts in July due to concerns over the economic outlook.

He said: “Business confidence clearly needs to rise before employment growth will pick up again, but at the moment the surveys suggest that companies remain worried about economic growth, both at home and abroad, and are generally erring towards cost-cutting rather than expansion.”

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public service trade union Unison, said the Government’s “savage” cuts have ended opportunities in the public sector and the private sector is struggling to withstand the economic downturn.

He said: “The Government’s economic strategy is in tatters. They need to stop the cuts and restore hope by planning for growth.”

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But the Department for Work and Pensions said the Government had introduced measures to stimulate job growth across the UK.

The introduction of 11 new “Enterprise Zones”, designed to boost local growth and create more than 30,000 new jobs by 2015 and a £1.4 billion Regional Growth Fund (RGF) for projects to support growth are among the Government’s initiatives.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said the figures were disappointing but added that “the road to recovery would be choppy”.

He said: “Clearly this has been a difficult few months, with a range of one-off factors and a slowdown in the world economy having an impact on the UK.

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“This is why we are focused on taking steps to increase growth, support the economy and encourage businesses to invest and create jobs.

“For people who lose their jobs, our new Work Programme is now up and running and will offer jobseekers flexible support tailored to their needs to help them into employment.”

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