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- Archive 2019
- 2015 Elections: 11 new BME MP’s make history
- 70th Anniversary of the Partition of India
- Black Church Manifesto Questionnaire
- Brett Bailey: Exhibit B
- Briefing Paper: Ethnic Minorities in Politics and Public Life
- Civil Rights Leader Ratna Lachman dies
- ELLE Magazine: Young, Gifted, and Black
- External Jobs
- FeaturedVideo
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- Gary Younge Book Sale
- George Osborne's budget increases racial disadvantage
- Goldsmiths Students' Union External Trustee
- International Commissioners condemn the appalling murder of Tyre Nichols
- Iqbal Wahhab OBE empowers Togo prisoners
- Job Vacancy: Head of Campaigns and Communications
- Media and Public Relations Officer for Jean Lambert MEP (full-time)
- Number 10 statement - race disparity unit
- Pathway to Success 2022
- Please donate £10 or more
- Rashan Charles had no Illegal Drugs
- Serena Williams: Black women should demand equal pay
- Thank you for your donation
- The Colour of Power 2021
- The Power of Poetry
- The UK election voter registration countdown begins now
- Volunteering roles at Community Alliance Lewisham (CAL)
Unemployment in Britain at a 17-year high
We are heading towards the festive period with the less-than-brilliant news that unemployment figures in the UK has hit a 17-year high following the loss of thousands of jobs in the public sector.
Official figures show 2.64 million people are now out of work with youth unemployment now standing at over one million. And economists fear the numbers are set to rise in the New Year. The Office for National Statistics said that the current unemployment rate of 8.3 percent was the highest since 1996.
The grim figures, which also show big rises in the number of women being put on the unemployment scrapheap, will not be great reading for Prime Minister David Cameron and the rest of the cabinet. Women's unemployment increased by 45,000 to 1.1 million, the highest figure since 1988. The number of people out of work for longer than a year rose by 19,000 in the latest quarter to 868,000, the worst figure since 1996.
The figures also show big rises and the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance increasing for the ninth month in a row.
Employment fell by 63,000 in the quarter to October to 29.11 million, while the number of people working in the public sector dipped below six million for the first time since 2003.
Daniel Solomon, an economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, told the Financial Times,
Worries about real income and employment prospects - exacerbated by UK government austerity measures and unpredictable spill-overs from eurozone sovereign debt crises - mean that UK consumers will be hunkering down for a difficult winter. Short term consumer spending growth and private sector investment will remain under real pressure.
He added,
And it will be a real challenge for the economy to avoid recession in the New Year. Against this backdrop, we expect the unemployment rate to rise to a peak at a little over 9 per cent in 2013, before beginning to fall back. However, concerns over the future of the eurozone make these medium term predictions shrouded in uncertainty.