Further rise in unemployment figures

The unemployment figures for the last 3 months were published today and they continue to make grim reading. Some of the main points to come out:

• The unemployment figure rose to 2.261 million, the highest since November 1996.
  
• The jobless rate is 7.2%, the highest since July 1997.
  
• In the first three months of this year, 462,000 people aged 16 or 17 were in employment, a 16.5% drop from the same period last year.
  
• In the same three months, 3.5 million 18-24 year olds were in employment, down 4.8% from the same period last year.
  
• 16.6% of 18-24 year olds are now unemployed, the highest rate since 1993.
  
• The number of people actually in work fell by 271,00 to 29.11 million, the biggest quarterly drop since records began in 1971.
  
• The number of positions available fell from 659,00 in May 2008 to 424,000 in May this year.
  

Source BBC website