- Quarter of adults out of work, official figures show, March 17, 2010, The Telegraph: “A total of 10.6 million people either did not have a job, or have stopped looking for one, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, which indicated that more people than ever before had abandoned the workplace – choosing instead to study, go on sick leave or just give up searching for a job. A record 149,000 left the workforce and became ‘economically inactive’, between November last year and January, the ONS said. These people more than offset the fall in the headline unemployment. Unemployment fell for the third month in a row, dropping by 33,000 to hit 2.45 million. It has yet to breach the symbolic 2.5 million mark, let alone the 3 million barrier that haunted the recessions of the early 1990s and 1980s…”
- UK unemployment records further fall, March 17, 2010, BBC News: “The number of people unemployed in the UK has fallen again, leaving the jobless rate at 7.8%, figures show. Total unemployment stood at 2.45 million for the three months to January, down 33,000 on the figure for the previous three months. But long-term unemployment, covering those out of work for more than a year, rose by 61,000 to 687,000. The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 32,300 to 1.59 million in February. Unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds fell by 34,000 to 715,000, but among the over-50s, joblessness rose by 14,000 to 398,000…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty