Government must take action as unemployment hits highest level since recession, says TUC

Commenting on the latest unemployment figures published today (Wednesday) by the Office for National Statistics, which show that unemployment in the West Midlands increased by 11.3% to 265,000 in the three months to January, Midlands TUC Regional Secretary Cheryl Pidgeon said: “Today’s figures are shocking. Over a year after the recession technically ended unemployment is now at its highest level since the mid 1990s, with 2.53 million people out of work. We have particular problems in the west midlands as figures show that 27,000 more people were unemployed in the region during the period. “The increase in the unemployment rate for young people is of real concern. Youth unemployment is at a record high, with more than a fifth of young people unable to find jobs, the risks for the future are very real.


“While the fall in the numbers claiming the dole is welcome, the number of jobs available in the economy has also fallen and there are over a million people in part-time work seeking permanent jobs.
“These figures show that the jobs recovery is still some way off. Public sector employment has already fallen 39,000 between September and the end of last year, and with thousands more redundancies still to come – for example in local authorities – this is no time to be cutting back on support programmes for the unemployed.
“This government’s economic policies risk making high joblessness a permanent feature of our economy. It must change course before it’s too late.”


The latest unemployment figures are available at www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsuk0311.pdf