According to a new research published by the Trades Union Congress, the actual number of jobless people in the UK could be more than twice the official total by using an American measure, taking into account under-employment including people recently made redundant and those in part-time jobs, who cannot find full-time work.
The jobless total increased to 2.68m last month and is expected to rise further when new figures are published by the Office for National Statistics this week.
“The headline unemployment figures are bad enough, but the true scale of joblessness is even worse. Over six million people are either out of work or under-employed. Tackling this crisis should be the Government’s number one priority,” said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.
Calling for the coalition government to tackle the unemployment crisis rather than blaming jobless people for being out of work, he added, “Our jobs crisis is not confined to those out of work. Nearly two million people are being forced to take low-paid, insecure, short hours jobs because of the lack of proper full-time employment. This means people are taking home much less pay, which is putting a real strain on family budgets.
Moreover, the UK Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said the report “shows the true scale of our country’s unemployment emergency, yet still complacent ministers are failing to act.”
SSM/GHN/HE
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