Unemployment will continue to rise in 2010

Unemployment will continue to rise in the new year, Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper predicted.

With figures showing almost 2.5 million people out of work in the three months to September, Ms Cooper said that total would keep growing in 2010.

The Government does not make formal forecasts on jobless figures, she told Sky News Sunday Live, but added: "We do expect unemployment to keep increasing in the new year."

As Chancellor Alistair Darling puts finishing touches to Wednesday's Pre Budget Report, Ms Cooper also said she hoped youth unemployment would fall in the second half of 2010.

The number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work has reached a record high of 943,000, meaning almost one in five are not employed.

But recent figures have shown a slowing in the rate of rising unemployment, and Ms Cooper said: "I think if we see current trends continue and if we have a big further push to help, particularly on youth unemployment, and if we see employers also helping us - and that's what I think should be our priority now - I do think we should be aiming, particularly for youth unemployment, to try and get youth unemployment falling in the second half of next year rather than see it rising for four or five years after the recession which is what happened in the 1980s.

"We must never go back to that."

Source - Daily Express

Categories: Job