Biggest rise in UK unemployment since 1971

One feature of the impact of the recession on the UK labour market has been how quickly both measures of unemployment have started to climb as the downturn has deepened. Unemployment using the LFS climbed by a record 281,000 to hit 2.38 million (7.6%) in the three months to May, the highest level since October 1995. And youth unemployment has spiked to the highest level since the early 1990s.

Labour shedding will continue well after the turning point in the economic cycle has been called since the jobless total remains a lagging indicator. Unemployment has risen by 750,000 over the last twelve months and employment is down by nearly half a million. Perhaps much of the jobs cull has already happened; businesses may have reacted with greater speed to falling order books and the credit squeeze than they did in previous slowdowns and recessions.

The BBC’s Hugh Pym reports on the latest bad news from the jobs market