UK unemployed may top two million

The number of jobless people in the UK is expected to rise above two million for the first time since 1997 when figures are published later.
Between September and November 2008 unemployment rose to 1.92 million, up 131,000 from the previous three months.
Now, following a wave of job losses, including 27,000 at Woolworths, a sharp rise is expected in the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance.
The prime minister is meeting business leaders later to discuss how to help.
Executives from Sainsbury’s, the Royal Mail, Whitbread, Centrica, National Express and Travelodge are expected to attend Downing Street for the first meeting of the National Employment Partnership.
The companies, as well as NHS and local authority leaders, will agree to advertise all non-specialist vacancies through the Jobcentre Plus network and to start offering more apprenticeships.
‘Scarred communities’
On Tuesday, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said: „We know times are tough and we will do all we can to help people who lose their jobs find another as quickly as possible to prevent the long-term unemployment which has so scarred communities in the past from taking root.“
He said businesses were already helping thousands of people into work through a local employment partnership scheme and would later pledge to help 200,000 more into jobs over the next year.
The jobseeker’s allowance figures for January, to be published later, will partially reflect redundancies at failed high street retailer Woolworths.
BBC business correspondent Nils Blythe explained that figures on the wider measure of unemployment – which also includes people not claiming benefits – will only cover the three months up to December so will not include the most recent job losses.
However, he said he expected the total to rise above two million, with that figure likely to increase further once the latest redundancy programmes are captured in official statistics.
‘Jobs position weakening’
A new TUC study showed that while unemployment in the UK was lower than the European average, it was now increasing twice as fast as the average across Europe.
The UK has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe at 6.1%, compared to a European average of 7.7%, the union said.
But between December 2007 and October 2008, the UK had the third sharpest increase in unemployment, behind Spain and Ireland, it added.
Over the same period, unemployment in France was found to go up by just 0.1% and fell 0.8% in Germany.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: „The UK began the global recession with a relatively strong jobs position, but our advantage is beginning to disappear as redundancies mount.“