Legal News
Unemployment Unlikely to fall below 2.5 Million until 2016, Experts Warn (19 January 2012)
Date: 19/01/2012
A chief economic advisor has warned that unemployment levels are unlikely to fall below 2.5 million over the next four years and will reach a peak of 2.9 million in 2013. Cuts in the public sector are set to increase the number of individuals out of work over the coming 18 months. It has been predicted that there will be 2.85 million unemployed individuals by the end of this year. This figure is set to increase by a further 50,000 during the beginning of 2013.
John Philpott, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s chief economic advisor, believes that unemployment levels will reach a peak at 8.8 per cent. Leading economists had anticipated that exports and investment by businesses would help to drive the economy this year but with insufficient numbers of new private sector job vacancies being created, the level of unemployed individuals will increase again. High unemployment levels reaching into 2015 are likely to be coupled with inflation outstripping pay increases, experts have predicted.
Dr. Philpott believed that public sector employment would fall at a mean rate of around 30,000 a quarter, adding that this will fail to be offset by new private sector jobs, resulting in a net employment cut of around 120,000. Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, claimed that, with over 2.6 million individuals already jobless, and many more likely to face job losses, the UK looks set to experience a decade of high levels of unemployment. He added that tackling the jobs crisis should be a top priority for the Government.
Duncan Lewis’ employment law solicitors can offer legal support to those facing job losses.