UK unemployment jumps by a record amount
The number of unemployed in the UK jumped by a record 138,000 people last month to bring the total number of unemployed in UK to in excess of 2 million people. This is a dramatic yet fully expected increase in unemployment at a time when the UK economy is apparently in freefall. Today we saw a heated prime ministers question time when Gordon Brown and David Cameron clashed on a number of occasions on the subject of unemployment.
We also saw the release of comments by the International Monetary Fund suggesting that the vast majority of developed countries around the world are expected to move out of recession next year while the UK was specifically highlighted as the one country which will still be in a recession in 2010. This, coupled with the 2.03 million people unemployed in the country, could prove to be the end of the Labour government as we approach the 2010 general election.
In a further development, which highlights the growing differences between the Bank of England and the UK government, David Blanchflower a member of the MPC and one of the few economists in the country to predict the scale of the current recession, is suggesting that things will get much worse before they get any better.
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