Unemployment in the UK hits 1.92 million
The government has today announced unemployment figures for November last year which shows a rise to 1.92 million. This is the highest total since September 1997 and many experts are forecasting a substantial increase over the next 12 months. While there is some debate as to how high the unemployment figure will go there are some suggesting it could peak at around 3.2 million during 2009/10.
More worrying is the fact that literally tens of thousands more jobs have been lost since the November figures were calculated and more job cuts are appearing on a daily basis. Not only does the rise in unemployment reduced the tax income for the UK government but also increases the payment of benefits to those out of work which will put further pressure on the UK government budget.
However, rather bizarrely the government also released figures showing there are 530,000 job vacancies in the UK, down 69,000 from the previous quarter and the lowest figure since records began in 2001. It is fairly confusing as to how there can be rising unemployment at the same time as over 500,000 job vacancies are being advertised. Surely there must be some way for the government to channel the unemployed towards these job vacancies?
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