Commenting on todayís labour market statistics, Ian Brinkley, associate director at The Work Foundation, said:
ëWell, we havenít broken the two million milestone yet – so the recession is not moving quite as fast as was feared - but the outlook for jobs is still very bleak according to these figures. Unemployment using both ILO and claimant count measures is rising alarmingly as we see the labour market reflect the severity of the recession. There has been a big jump in redundancies – in the last quarter of 2008 redundancies jumped to 260,000 compared with 104,000 in the previous three months, an increase of 67 per cent.
ëHowever, the picture is quite complex as there do also seem to be employers who were still hiring late last year: the employment rate fell by a modest 45,000 which is small bearing in mind we are entering the third quarter of the recession.
ëThe figures suggest the kinds of work people are being hired for is mostly part time while full-time work is falling. Although some people might have reduced their hours in their existing job, it is more likely that full time jobs are being lost in those parts of the economy worst affected by the downturn while part time jobs grow in other areas, such as education and health and social care services.
ëYoung people are once more being disproportionately affected by the recession. ILO unemployment among under-25s not in full time education went up by 50,000 and the ILO unemployment rate for this group reached 16 per cent.í
Commenting on todayís labour market statistics
Ian Brinkley, associate director at The Work Foundation, said
