Originally published @ 10:13 am, Sat 23rd Jan 2010
New unemployment figures show unemployment in South Derbyshire down by seven.
South Derbyshire's Tory PPC is quoted as saying -
“I’m clearly delighted for the seven people who have managed to find a job ..."
We are, I suppose, to be grateful that she didn't try to identify them by name.
Equating a monthly fall of 7 to 7 people finding a job is bizarre. The real story is far deeper and part of the reason for a fall at all is the extra resources to expand Job Centre Plus to help people find jobs more quickly.
Most commentators are clear that unemployment is still to rise even though we are set to be declared out of recession.
The significance of the recent monthly falls in unemployment is that they’ve occurred within 20 months of the first rise in unemployment. During the 1992 recession, it took 40 months.
Further, unemployment is currently at 2.9% in South Derbyshire nearly half the rate it was following Black Wednesday in 1992, when it reached 5.5%.
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Nationally, the unemployment figures have now fallen for 2 months, and even though they are predicted to go up again next month, it was interesting that David Cameron chose not to talk about the economy at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Underlying our drive is a clear understanding that “unemployment is not a price worth paying”. People not paying in to the system but only taking out does not help public finances or the demand for goods and services that others rely on; the personal cost is harder to measure, but broken relationships, defaulted mortgages and damage to confidence is part of that.
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