Unemployment down - at least in some ways

The debate on whether the recovery is going to be sustained will go on for a long time. Yesterday there was some good news on unemployment, although not consistently, and a warning from the Bank of England that the recovery will be slower than they previously expected.

The unemployment figures on the ILO measure fell by 49,000, largely due to a fall in youth unemployment. This really is good news as it means that the jobs market at the bottom end may be recruiting again. If school and university leavers had to endure another year of poor recruitment then then problems of long term, but young unemployed would present a massive policy problem for a decade at least.

Unusually the claimant count measure of unemployment rose. This difference is unusual because it is harder to get Job Seekers Allowance than it is to say you are unemployed according to the ILO definition. However we should wait for more data before reading too much into this.

Meanwhile the Bank of England said that the growth of the economy will be much slower than they thought in their last report, just three months ago. They now think the economy will return to 2008 levels of output in 2015 and not 2013. That is really quite a big difference.

The bank expects recovery to be uneven and does not rule out future declines in output in some quarters. The Euro area recovery is key. If Europe does not recover, and today it was announced that the Euro area slipped back into recession, then Britain will suffer too.

The BBC review the unemployment figures and comment of future prospects here

One million reasons to study harder

The figures released last week of record unemployment of over 2.6 million (8.3%) indicates the economy is stuttering along. Unemployment figures record the economic performance of the past and illustrate the impact of sluggish economic growth. However, the youth unemployment figures (over 1 million for the first time) is even more disturbing as it gives a window into the the productive capacity of the future. The NEETs (Not employed, educated or trained) lend themselves to a bleak future. Opportunities need to be created for the youth otherwise the economy will need to deal with and try to overcome the difficult problem of hard-core or long term unemployment. For you as a student you may be entering the workforce during a very tough economic climate. Education will become a vital bargaining chip in gaining employment.
The Telegraph Article Here