GET BRITAIN WORKING

GOVERNMENT FIGURES SHOW 1.7M ARE UNEMPLOYED AND SEEKING WORK

- RICHARD AULT

As many as one in six people are unemployed in some parts of the country, as the government strives to “Get Britain Working”.

In November, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall published the Get Britain Working White Paper, an ambitious roadmap to achieving an 80% employment rate.

As it was published, stark figures showed almost one and a half million people are unemployed, over nine million people are economically inactive, and a record 2.8 million people are out of work due to long-term sickness. The employment rate was 75%.

The UK is also the only major economy that has seen its employment rate fall over the last five years, largely driven by a significant rise in the number of people out of work due to long-term ill health.

Recent research published by the House of Commons Library shows that as of December, 1.7 million people were claiming Jobseeker's Allowance or Universal Credit (UC) with a requirement to seek work. That includes 298,000 teenagers or young adults aged between 18 and 24.

That overall figure was 700 more than the previous month when the government published its White Paper and 181,800 more than in December 2023, a 12% annual rise in unemployment.

However, that rise may have been affected by changes made by the Department for Work and Pensions to the criteria for claiming UC in May 2024.