TUC on job figures

Commenting on the job figures published today (Wednesday) TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, said:

There is a mix of good and bad news in todayís figures. The number of people in work continues to rise but unemployment has gone up again and more manufacturing jobs have been lost. Predictions that a winter energy crisis would cost a million jobs have been proved false, but there are no grounds for complacency.

Not only is unemployment rising, long-term unemployment is rising particularly quickly. The Bank should act to slow down the rate at which jobs are being lost by cutting interest rates, and the government should raise spending on back to work programmes to help people escape from unemployment.