Labour: We’re responsible for unemployment fall

Shadow employment minister Jim Knight comments on today’s unemployment figures, which show a 0.2% fall to 7.8% in the number of people out of work:

“We welcome the fall in the number of people who are unemployed. Today’s figures continue to show that the action the Labour government took last year worked.

“But, as we face huge cuts in spending, private sector jobs growth is neither strong or sustained enough to take on those people who will lose their jobs due to the government’s spending cuts.

“Now is absolutely the wrong time to withdraw support for the economy and jobseekers -and the coalition government is wrong to abandon people to unemployment and risk the recovery which will cost us all more in the long run.”