U.K. Unemployment Rate Reaches 8.1 Percent

The U.K. unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent, during the summer. It's the highest rate in the past 15 years. The number of people unemployed is 2.57 million people, the most since 1994. In the 3 months through July, the rate went up from 7.9 to 8.1, a steady increase.

Jobless claims for September saw a climb of 17,500. If there is any bright side to this, it's that number that is less than the predicted number of 24,000. All of this puts more pressure on the government to loosen the fiscal hold that it has. George Osborne, the Chancellor of Exchequer, seems to be intent on keeping the fiscal hold in tact though.

The number of employed people fell 178,000 in the past 3 months through August. It's the most since the quarter through July 2009.

It just shows that more time is needed to recover from what seems to be more and more of a global recession. It could takes years before the U.K. unemployment rate returns to normal. It's a vicious cycle: More people get hired, more people get paid, these people spend their money and it goes back to the companies so they can keep their operation going. Then, the employees get paid and the cycles continues.

Companies are not willing and/or able to hire more employees. Not to say that if they hire more, the economy will recover. It could be that consumers are not spending money. But they can't spend money that they don't have.

Comments: 1

The V. Oct 21, 2011, 4:37pm UTC

The actual unemployment rate in the UK is very close to 20%, with more than 5.5 million people idle. The reason the government can get away with claiming only 8.1 percent is because that's the number of people who would like to work, but can't find employment. The rest are professional leeches whose sole occupation is living off the government dole, from cradle to grave. And it's a multi-generational occupation for more and more families. My first trip to England was in 1982 and I've had a fond affection for the people since then, but watching as the country implodes economically because of their big experiment in Socialism has been heartbreaking. Meanwhile the bobbleheaded nitwits in the Occupy Everywhere gang want to bring the same crushing, immoral, and ultimately lethal system to the US.

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U.K. Unemployment Rate Reaches 8.1 Percent

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