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• "The unemployment"

  thewall.com.au | 12:57 pm Feb 15, 2012

  • "The UK unemployment hits 8.4% in Q4"
  • "The number of young people without a job rose 22,000 to 1.04m, taking the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds to 22.2%"
  • "the unemployment rate is now at its highest since 1995, the number of job vacancies rose to 476,000 in the three months to January"
  • "Today's figures make for grim reading for the millions of squeezed families desperate for good news on the economy"
  • "The apparent contradiction is explained by the fact that the number of people classified as economically inactive has dropped"

Story In detail

• UK unemployment hits 8.4% in Q4

  thewall.com.au | 12:32 pm Feb 15, 2012

  Britain's unemployment rate has edged up to 8.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2011, official figures show, as 48,000 people lost their jobs compared with the previous three-month period.

  The Office for National Statistics said the unemployment rate has not been higher since 1995. It rose from 8.3 per cent in the three months through September and was unchanged from the three months through November.

  Wages excluding bonuses were up 2 per cent, compared with 1.9 per cent in the three months through November. Total pay including bonuses was up 2 per cent, unchanged from the previous report.

  Pay has increased slowly during a period when inflation shot as high as 5.2 per cent in September. The latest data show inflation has dropped to 3.6 per cent, and some analysts think it might drop to around 1 per cent by the end of the year.

  "The latest figures show some encouraging signs of stability despite the challenging economic climate," said David Freud, the minister for welfare reform.

  "However, we are not complacent. With more people in the labour market we know that competition for those jobs is tough and we will continue to make it our priority to find people work," Freud added.

  Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, noted that total employment rose by 60,000 in the last quarter of the year but that just kept pace with the growth of the work force.

  "We continue to expect unemployment to rise much further in response to the weakness in the wider economy," Redwood said.

  Britain's economy shrank by 0.2 per cent in the last quarter of 2011, according to the statistics agency's first estimate.

  The governor of the Bank of England says that Britain's economy is likely to grow slowly this year in a "zigzag" pattern of quarterly gains and setbacks in output.

  Introducing the bank's latest quarterly inflation report, Mervyn King said on Wednesday that spending cuts and tight credit conditions at home and the weakness of major trading partners abroad is holding back growth.

  The inflation report forecast growth of 1 per cent in 2012 and 1.8 per cent in 2013.

  King added that inflation, currently 3.6 per cent, is likely to fall to the official 2 per cent target by the end of the year, and be below target for much of the following two years.

Most Popular Tweets (11)

• BBC is reporting "unemployment rises" as good news because it only rose by 0.3%. This is what normalisation of crisis looks like.

  @alexhern - Alex Hern
  

  1:06 pm Feb 15, 2012
• The govt's pursuit of austerity measures is the main cause of today's unemployment figures, according to the GMB. http://t.co/of9XMFKq

  @CentralLobby - Central Lobby
  

  12:10 pm Feb 15, 2012
• UK unemployment has risen by 48,000 to 2.67 million in the 3 months to December. http://t.co/6QcSWFFJ

  @globaltolerance - Simon Cohen
  

  11:47 am Feb 15, 2012
• For first time since Great Recession, UK has higher unemployment than US: http://t.co/Uxn0TxzA

  @wdjstraw - Will Straw
  

  11:23 am Feb 15, 2012
• UK unemployment stuck at 17-year high as economy flatlines http://t.co/seyAHHX5

  @BusinessDesk - Guardian Business
  

  11:14 am Feb 15, 2012
• Mr Cameron, what part of "sort out unemployment" did you not understand?

  @Charles_HRH - Prince Charles
  

  10:18 am Feb 15, 2012
• Youth unemployment hits 22.2%. The futures of hundreds of thousands of young people are being destroyed by Government's ideological crusade

  @OwenJones84 - Owen Jones
  

  10:15 am Feb 15, 2012
• UK unemployment holds at 16 year high of 8.4% for 2nd month & jobless claims up more than expected by 6,900 to 1.6mln highest since Jan 2010

  @lindayueh - Linda Yueh
  

  9:41 am Feb 15, 2012
• Unemployment at 8.4%lower than expected rise to 8.5%. 2.67m people out of work.

  @ITVRichard - Richard Edgar
  

  9:33 am Feb 15, 2012
• #UK claimant count change (Jan) up +6.9k. Prior +1.9k. Consensus +3.0k. Unemployment rate (Dec) unchanged at 8.4%

  @MarkitEconomics - Markit Economics
  

  9:30 am Feb 15, 2012
• ALL EMPLOYED PEOPLE ARE PAYING A NOT-BEING-UNEMPLOYED TAX BECAUSE THEY ARE DENIED UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS *SHOTS FIRED*

  @jrrdrbb - Jarrad Robb
  

  8:30 am Feb 15, 2012