Unemployment soars to 1.79 million
- 00:03:00
- ITN
Unemployment soars to 1.79 million
Unemployment has rocketed by 164,000 to 1.79 million, official figures show. The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance has gone up by 31,800 to 939,900. Commons Leader Harriet Harman told the Commons the Government was "very, very much concerned" about the rise in unemployment but warned the Tories not to "write off our economy". Senior Tory William Hague said the jobless figures marked "a grim day for the British economy" and called for action on insolvency laws and pensioner annuity rules. Ms Harman, standing in for Prime Minister Gordon Brown who is in Brussels for an EU summit, said he was "a man with a plan" - a slogan recently adopted by Tory leader David Cameron. Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "There are human stories behind these headlines. Left to itself things are likely to get worse and there is more gloomy news on the way. "Now is not the time for faint hearts. The Government should use public spending to create jobs on projects like Crossrail and other transport infrastructure, on social housing schemes and items like ships and aircraft for the armed forces. "There is also a need to get on with building nuclear power stations and developing green jobs for wind and wave power. This spending will keep people in work and boost confidence and is just as necessary as the bailout of the banks." The Government has said it will provide an extra £100 million to retrain staff who lose their jobs during the economic downturn. The funding may be seen as a further indication that ministers are preparing for a recession. Ministers said the the cash would be carefully targeted at - among others - workers in sectors "experiencing significant job losses". The additional funding was announced in a joint statement by Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and Skills Secretary John Denham. The TUC suggested a series of urgent measures to stem the rising tide of job losses, including a halt to cuts among staff at the Department for Work and Pensions. The union organisation said the Government should also increase the statutory minimum redundancy pay - as promised in Labour's last election manifesto - and offer greater tax relief on redundancy payments. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "We have got used to record levels of employment, but the world has changed and we need new policies for jobless times. "There can be no assumption that the people who are losing their jobs will find it easy to get new ones, and they will need all the help they can get with redundancy pay, retraining and personal advice."
ITN | October 15, 2008
