Quoted from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/6196531/UK-unemployment-jumps-to-highest-since-1995-as-recession-pain-bites.html:
The number of Britons joining the dole queue climbed by 210,000 to 2.47 million in the three months to the end of July, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed today. That's the highest level since 1995.
Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, said on Tuesday that while there are signs the economy is beginning to grow again, it's not likely to feel any different for most people. It was a view echoed today by the fashion retailer Next, which said that it sees little reason for "the consumer outlook to significantly change through the rest of the year."
The recession has forced companies across the economy to axe staff and ditch investment plans. The retail, construction and financial services industries have been among those hardest hit. However, the cuts have spread to even the more resilient industries such as defence, with BAE, which helps build the Eurofighter, announcing plans yesterday to close a factory in Cheshire.
"Unemployment still looks likely to go reach 3 million in 2010, and could go higher," said Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight. "Even if the economy does return to growth in the third quarter, activity is still unlikely to be strong enough for some considerable time to come to prevent further net job losses."
Despite evidence that the economy has technically emerged from recession, most experts expect a recovery to be sluggish as Britons grapple with their debts and trim spending in the face of rising unemployment.
It's a picture mirrored in the US, where Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, cautioned that a recovery will be long and hard.
Separate figures showed that the number of people claiming unemployment benefit rose by 24,400 in August, similar to what economists had forecast. Sterling was little changed against the dollar at $1.6477 after the figures were released while the FTSE 100 stayed 1pc stronger at 5096.28.
UK unemployment jumps to highest since 1995 as recession pain bites | Telegraph
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