UK’s unemployment count climbs to 2.47 million

Women walk past a job centre in London on September 16, 2009. Unemployment in Britain hit a near 13-year high in July last year despite signs that the deepest recession since World War II is coming to an end, official figures showed. File photo: AP.

The number of unemployed people in the U.K. rose to 2.47 million for the three months to April, pushing the jobless rate to 7.9 per cent during the same period.

Moreover, the number of people without a job for over 12 months shot up to 772,000, the highest in 13 years.

“The number of unemployed people increased by 23,000 over the quarter to reach 2.47 million,” the Office for National Statistics said in a statement today.

Going by the latest data, the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 per cent to 7.9 per cent for the three months to April.

The disappointing figures come at a time when the UK economy, one of the worst hit by the financial meltdown in 2008—09, is witnessing a fragile recovery.

Labour market remains shaky

Indicating that the country’s labour market remains shaky, the number of people unemployed for more than twelve months “increased by 85,000 over the quarter to reach 772,000, the highest figure since the three months to April, 1997.”

On the other hand, the number of individuals in the UK seeking jobless allowance fell by 30,900 between April and May to 1.48 million.

“This is the first time the claimant count has been below 1.5 million since March, 2009,” the statement noted.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the OECD area, a grouping of mostly developed nations that includes the UK, stood at 8.7 per cent in April.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the highest unemployment rate in April was seen in Spain (19.7 per cent) and the Slovak Republic (14.1 per cent), among others.