Unemployment bad, or not...

[buctootim]

People registered as unemployed is up to a 20 year high, youth unemployment is at an all time record high and we are supposedly in recession again. And yet.... employment is actually up on three months ago and the number of economically inactive people is down. Whats going on? Makes no sense to me, unless the population is rising sharply - and even if that were true how can GDP be falling against a backdrop of increasing employment?

 

 

•The employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 was 70.3 per cent, down 0.1 on the quarter. There were 29.12 million people in employment aged 16 and over, up 18,000 on the quarter.

•The unemployment rate was 8.4 per cent of the economically active population, up 0.3 on the quarter. There were 2.68 million unemployed people, up 118,000 on the quarter. The unemployment rate has not been higher since 1995 and the number of unemployed people has not been higher since 1994.

•The inactivity rate for those aged from 16 to 64 was 23.1 per cent, down 0.2 on the quarter. There were 9.29 million economically inactive people aged from 16 to 64, down 61,000 on the quarter.

•Total pay (including bonuses) rose by 1.9 per cent on a year earlier, down 0.2 on the three months to October 2011(with both the private and public sectors showing lower pay growth).

•Regular pay (excluding bonuses) rose by 1.9 per cent on a year earlier, up 0.1 on the three months to October 2011.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/january-2012/statistical-bulletin.html

Edited 19 January, 2012 by buctootim

[Ampersound]

I heard on the radio this morning that the records for unemployment only started 17 years ago. Seems strange as I'm sure there was massive unemployment in the late 70s/early 80s

[buctootim]

I heard on the radio this morning that the records for unemployment only started 17 years ago. Seems strange as I'm sure there was massive unemployment in the late 70s/early 80s

 

I guess they changed the way in which the numbers are counted, so making comparisons with earlier years unreliable. Thats the trouble with stats - depends on what you count and how....

[Ken Tone]

I heard on the radio this morning that the records for unemployment only started 17 years ago. Seems strange as I'm sure there was massive unemployment in the late 70s/early 80s

 

When the Tories ran the iconic "Labour isn't working" poster ad in 1979, unemployment was 1.4 million.

 

The figures shot up during the 80's, but still stayed well under 2 million.

 

Now it's c 2.7 million. That's progress for you! What we thought was massive unemployment in the 70s and 80s is just normal now.

[Jonnyboy]

Someone on the radio said if every registered business took on one new worker we'd have full employment. Did I hear that wrong?