Unemployment is 2.49 million

Unemployment has reached 2.49 millions taking the UK levels to 2.7%. Even though this is the highest in 13 years, Yvette Cooper MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said “despite the rise in unemployment the figures was lower than it could have been due to government action”. What government action!? If she is talking about the 23,000 public sector jobs created last quarter, these are mostly temporary contract jobs for only 6-9 month. In other words these are jobs created for one purpose, to see Labour and the government though to the election. But I wonder does Ms Copper, knows how many jobs the private sector lost against that number?”

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the claimant unemployment figures have actually fallen by 6000 this month. Obviously that is good news; but unfortunately this figure does not reflect the true number either, because people can only claim benefit if they have less than £16,000 in the bank. Which disbenefit a lot of the unemployed in today’s market.

However, what Ms Cooper has side stepped and failed to comment on is the phenomenal increase of youth (16-24 years old) unemployment which is the highest since records began at 950,000. This figures mean that one in five young people is out of work today, and that is indeed a great worry.

The government’s one size fits all approach to the unemployed problem is also a concern. Every one is treated the same regardless of their previous experiences or qualifications. Once they sign on for the first 13 weeks they get the basic support of how and where to look and apply for jobs. While a lot of those who are currently on benefit can come off faster if they had extra support earlier than the traditional 13 weeks. There are those who could be encouraged and supported to become self employed or run a small business and of course there are those who need to retrain, but the information and support for these options and opportunities are only available after the first 13 and in some cases 18 weeks. When you consider that the majority of those unemployed today have joined the jobless market after a long period in employment, giving them the extra support earlier, from week one, is vital not only to their economy but to their psychological and emotional well being too, thus costing the tax payer and the government less in the long run.