The rise in the number of jobless at 35,000 was entirely driven by the public sector job losses, where employment fell by 33,000. However, the private sector failed to take up the additional job losses, with employment numbers remaining unchanged. The government is heavily relying on private sector to compensate by creating new jobs for an estimated 330,000 public sector redundancies over the next four years due to government public service cuts. Can it do it?
Employment amongst 16-24 year olds was up by 20% and overall unemployment was up by almost 8% but in the southwest it was down by 0.3% There was also an increase of 22,000 inactive people registered. Is that people on pensions of working age?
I believe now more than before that 2011/12 is going to be very harsh and I expect at Christmas 2011 unemployment it will be higher than it is now. At present with such bleak prospects have we any other choice to keep the economy from stalling other than we must all continue to fight the cuts?