According to the data released by the Office for National Statistics, U.K. unemployment claims rose for a second month in September. It is the biggest increase in eight months. Jobless benefit claims rose by 5,300 from the previous month to 1.473 million which exceeded the median forecast of 23 economists for an increase of 4,500. Overall unemployment in the quarter through August fell by 20,000 to 2.45 million, led by 16 to 17 year-old people.
The claimant-count unemployment rate stayed at 4.5 percent in September. The unemployment rate in the quarter through August measured by International Labour Organization methods slipped to 7.7 percent, the lowest since the three months through May 2009. Unemployment would have risen if it excluded 16 to 17 year olds. The unemployment rate compares with 10.1 percent in the euro region, 9.6 percent in the U.S. and 5.1 percent in Japan.
Weekly pay including bonuses rose 1.7 percent in the three months through August from a year earlier, while excluding bonuses, pay increased by 2 percent, according to the released data. The released report shows that the economic recovery may be weakening and highlighted the extent to which private sector firms could also be hit by the cuts.
The U.K. Treasury’s fiscal watchdog predicts the loss of half a million jobs in the public sector by April 2015 due to the government budget squeeze. Unions representing more than 6 million workers voted in September to coordinate industrial action in a campaign to stop the cuts. The government will next week announce, how its plan to reduce a record budget deficit will affect individual departments.
In a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, an accounting firm said spending cuts could result in 1million job losses. The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that 600,000 public sector jobs could be lost as the government cuts spending.
As I said…doom and gloom.
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