Don't forget about unemployment

With much of yesterday's focus remaining on MP's expenses, it was easy to forget the latest unemployment figures which showed that 224,000 extra people were out of work in the UK during the period January-March 2009.

The current number now out of work in the UK stands at 2.22 million and it is widely expected to reach 3 million by the end of the year.

In Wales, 111,000 people (or 7.7 per cent of all working age adults) are out of work, and represents a rise of 44 per cent as compared to a year ago.

With small firms are still finding it difficult to keep workers on and even our most successful large businesses are still talking about job cuts, the question is how much more unemployment will rise during the next few months?

Are we potentially talking about 150,000 out of work in Wales by the end of the year?

I hope not but the statistics from yesterday could be an indication that things are going to get worse before they get better.

Comments

Anonymous said…

I think WAG would like nothing better than to forget about the appalling jobless figures for Wales.

After all they have no idea how to create jobs apart from public sector ones of course.

May 13, 2009 3:15 pm

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