UK unemployed total leaps by 244,000 for quarter

The number of unemployed has risen sharply to its highest level since Labour came into power in 1997, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The jump of 244,000 in the three months to March is the biggest since 1981 and means that the overall number is above two million, at 2.215m, and that one out of every six people in the 18-24 age group is unemployed.

The figures showed that the recession continues to take its toll, with the unemployment rate rising to 7.1 per cent, ever nearer the symbolic level of ten per cent. There is now a strong likelihood that the jobless total will rise above three million during the next year.

But it was the level of youth unemployment that caught the eye, with 16.1 per cent of the age group now out of work, up nearly a third compared to last year. With school-leavers and graduates to inflate the figures over the summer, economists fear the numbers are set to deteriorate significantly over the next few months.

The bright spot in the release was the announcement that the rise in the amount of people who claimed unemployment benefit slowed in April after a similar slowdown in March. The figure rose by 57,100 to 1.51m, a much smaller increase than expected.

The ONS took the unusual step of announcing the data a day early after some of it was accidentally leaked ahead of schedule. It blamed a computer error and ordered an investigation into the mistake.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, in the Daily Telegraph: "These are all horrible figures, but the claimant count unemployment data offer some glimmers of hope that the rise in the number of jobless has tailed off to some extent after surging at the beginning of the year."

Brendan Barber, General-Secretary of the TUC, in the Times: “This is another set of dreadful numbers.Some people in the City are already talking of a recovery. But the only recovery in the real world will be when unemployment starts to fall.” ·