Youth Unemployment
Unemployment in the U.K. has risen to 2.261 million in the three months to April, the highest level since November 1996, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The jobless rate rose to 7.2%, the highest since July 1997, though still remaining less that expected.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefit rose by 39,000 in May, less than the 60,000 which had been forecast by analysts.
The claimant count rate rose to 4.8%, the highest since November 1997.
Average earnings rose 0.8%, more than expected, in the three months to April as a result of the timing of bonus payments in the financial services sector.
The number of people in work fell by 271,000 over the three months to 29.11 million, the biggest quarterly drop since comparable records began in 1971.
The number of vacancies fell from 659,000 in May 2008 to 424,000 in May this year a 35.6% drop.
The biggest group effected was the young people in the three months to April, 462,000 people aged 16 and 17 were in employment, 16.5% less than in the same period a year earlier.
In the same three months, 3.5m people in the 18-to-24 age range were in employment, down 4.8% from the same period a year earlier.
The number of men (+65) and women (=60) of retirement age in employment rose by 2.6% in the same period from a year earlier, the only age group to register a rise.
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