UK unemployment rises again
By Ian Dunt Follow @IanDunt
UK unemployment was up 38,000 in the three months to June, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics statistics mean 2.49 million are currently out of work in the UK.
The news saw the FTSE take a tumble and prompted more concerns about the ongoing effect of the eurozone crisis and fractious economic policy in Washington.
"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," Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, commented.
IPPR chief economist Tony Dolphin commented: "As evidence has gathered of a sharp slowdown in UK economic growth over the last few months, the one bright spot has been the labour market. After today’s latest release of labour market data this is no longer the case.
“This recent weakness in the labour market is hitting women particularly hard. The total number of women unemployed in the second quarter was 1.05 million, up 21,000 on the quarter and the highest level of female unemployment since 1988."
Unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds rose to 20.2% – up 15,000 to 949,000.
Stephen Timms, shadow employment minister, csaid: "This is a very worrying set of figures. The Tories are creating a vicious circle in our economy because they are cutting too far and too fast – hitting families and costing jobs. More people out of work and on benefits makes it harder to get the deficit down."
The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance increased by 37,100 to hit 1.56 million in July.
It is the third consecutive month the claimant count has risen and it constitutes the largest monthly increase since May 2009.
It was almost double the 20,000 rise expected by analysts.
