Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was a matter of ‘personal regret’ that any person should lose their job but he insisted Britain was in better shape regarding unemployment than Germany, Japan and the US.
Britain’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.5 percent in the three months to January, also a 12-year high, the Office for National Statistics said.
The claimant count soared 138,400 in February, the biggest monthly gain since records began in 1971 as Britain endures its first recession in 18 years.
The thirteenth consecutive monthly rise in claims was far higher than the market consensus estimate of 87,500, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was a matter of “personal regret” that any person should lose their job but he insisted Britain was in better shape regarding unemployment than Germany, Japan and the United States.
Economists were not upbeat, however.
“The unemployment data are truly awful, heightening fears about the potential depth and length of the recession” in Britain, said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight.
“Unemployment smashed through the two million barrier with ease … and it seems set to head up towards three million pretty rapidly over the coming months as the economy contracts sharply and struggling businesses look to contain their costs.”
Barclays Capital analyst Varun Bhabha said that “in comparison with previous recessions, the path of claimant count unemployment over the past few months seems to point towards a far sharper and faster adjustment by firms.”
In an attempt to turn round Britain’s fortunes, the Bank of England has in recent months slashed local interest rates to a record low 0.5 percent.
The BoE monetary policy committee voted 9-0 to cut borrowing costs, minutes of their meeting showed on Wednesday.
BoE policymakers also voted unanimously to pump 75 billion pounds (106 billion dollars or 84 billion euros) of newly-created money into the financial system in an effort to bolster demand.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:02 pm
[...] [...]