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Quarter of a million have been out of work for over a year
Almost a quarter of a million people have now been on the dole for more than a year in the UK – more than twice as many as at the start of the last recession, according to analysis by the TUC of official unemployment statistics.
Almost a quarter of a million people have now been on the dole for more than a year in the UK – more than twice as many as at the start of the last recession, according to analysis by the TUC of official unemployment statistics.
They reveal that more than a third of the 232 local authority areas across the UK (88 council areas) now have more than a thousand residents who have been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for at least 12 months, compared to just 26 council areas in December 2007.
At the beginning of the last recession in late 2007, 117,845 individuals had been claiming JSA for more than 12 months. Now that figure is 243,330, with Northern Ireland witnessing the sharpest increase in long-term unemployment in the past year.
Parts of Greater London have also been badly affected with three boroughs – Hackney, Kensington and Chelsea, and Sutton – also suffering large increases in the number of long-term JSA claimants, says the TUC.
Other regions of the UK affected by big increases in the numbers out of work for more than a year since last Christmas are Wales, which has seen a 2.7 per cent increase, Yorkshire and the Humber (2.5 per cent) and the South East (2.5 per cent).
Total long-term unemployment, including those who have not been claiming JSA, rose to 839,000 in October 2010, a 34 per cent increase on the year and the highest level since February 1997.
The number of unemployed people outnumbering vacancies by more than five to one across the UK – rising to around 20 to one in some employment blackspots – and the jobs crisis could get even worse in the new year, the TUC warns.
The TUC says the future looks bleak for those in the public sector who are about to lose their jobs and warns thios could have a knock-on effect on the private sector. It is organising a demonstration against the cuts on 26 March next year "to try to show ministers the damage and widespread misery the cuts are causing, and persuade them that it is not too late to change course".
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