Unemployment reaches 2.47 million as FTSE recovers

The ONS said that 24,000 more people started claiming unemployment benefit during the month of August, a similar figure to previous months. The total number of people claiming unemployment benefits was reported as being 1.6 million, the highest since 1997.

Using the International Labour Office measure, unemployment increased by 210,000 in the three months to July, taking the total number of jobless to 2.47 million – the highest since 1995.

According to the ONS, average earnings growth has started to slow down significantly to 1.7 per cent in the three months to July, down from 2.5 per cent in the previous quarter.

Among 16-24 year olds, unemployment rose from 928,000 to 947,000 – roughly 19.7 per cent of the age group.

Recently a number of indicators have suggested that the economy is improving and may even be out of recession. The FTSE 100 has overcome the 5,100 mark after languishing in the 4,000s for months.

However because employment is a “lagging indicator”, Meryvn King, the Governor of the Bank of England has said that to most people the recession would not seem to have finnished for some time.

Speaking at the Trades Union Congress in Liverpool, Brendan Barber, head of the TUC said, “Green shoots mean little when thousands of people a day are joining the dole queue.

“Rising share prices mean little when a million and more young people can’t find work.

“It’s only when unemployment starts coming down, only when we create decent jobs that pay decent wages and only when vital public services are safe from cuts that we’ll be able to talk about a real recovery.”