Posts tagged Unemployment

Unemployment matters more than GDP or inflation

Mehdi Hasan in The Guardian:

Poll after poll shows voters across the EU care much more about the jobs deficit than they do about the budget deficit. Nonetheless, the proverbial Martian, landing in Brussels last week, would have been stunned to witness the complacency and indifference of the continent’s political elites to the crisis of spiralling joblessness. EU leaders continue to fiddle – over borrowing limits, fiscal compacts, treaty changes – as their economies crash and burn. The austerity gamble hasn’t paid off. Fiscal consolidation has failed to spur growth or boost employment.

I still broadly speaking support the approach to dealing with the deficit that the UK government is taking. This is a good counter-argument though. It’s a shame about the needless reference to the Nazi’s, but other than that, a good read.

Not good news on the employment front

Highest level of unemployment since 1994 and youth unemployment has just crossed the one million mark.

Unemployment is down 88,000 for the last three months

Office for National Statistics:

The unemployment rate for the three months to April 2011 was 7.7 per cent of the economically active population, down 0.3 on the quarter. The total number of unemployed people fell by 88,000 over the quarter to reach 2.43 million. This is the largest quarterly fall in unemployment since the three months to August 2000.

At least this is something heading in the right direction.

UPDATE:

I should add that employment also increased by 80,000.