Jobless jump ‘quickest since 1981’
By Alex Stevenson
Unemployment rose to 2.38 million in the three months to May 2009, figures have shown today, as a report calls for the creation of a “more sustainable economy”.
The Institute for Public Policy Research is concerned by the statistics, which appear to suggest unemployment is on course to hit three million by the end of the recession.
It called on the government to urgently address the need for new sources of jobs, in high-tech manufacturing and private services like the creative industries.
According to today’s figures the unemployment rate increased by 0.9 per cent over the previous quarter to 7.6 per cent.
This is the largest quarterly increase in the unemployment rate since 1981, the Office of National Statistics said.
The IPPR said the economy had become overly reliant on the public sector, retail, housing and finance as sources of employment growth – despite the fact over two-thirds of all jobs are in these sectors.
“Our strategy will help build a stronger, more sustainable economy, with high-skilled jobs,” its author Rachel Reeves, a former Bank of England economist and Labour’s PPC for Leeds West, said.
“It will also establish a less precarious tax base with a financial services sector that supports the wider economy on its path back to full employment and beyond.”
The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, known as the claimant count, hit 1.56 million in June. It has not been higher since June 1997, Tony Blair’s first full month in Downing Street after New Labour took power.
