Press Story

Reacting to today's unemployment figures, the think tank IPPR says that while the UK economy just been through a double-dip recession the labour market has performed remarkably well.

Tony Dolphin, IPPR Chief Economist, said:

"There is more good news on the economy in today's labour market figures. Employment is up and unemployment down over the last quarter. Youth unemployment also fell and is now well below the one million mark. The UK economy may have just been through a double-dip recession, but the labour market has performed remarkably well this year.

"One reason that employment has increased despite weak output growth is that workers have accepted a cut in their real pay. Average earnings are still increasing by less than 2 per cent, and - as we saw yesterday - inflation has increased to 2.7 per cent.

"One unwelcome note in the unemployment numbers was the 12,000 increase in the numbers of the long-term unemployed over the last three months. Although this is a smaller rise than recorded in recent months, and there are good reasons to expect long-term unemployment to stop rising in coming months, there are now almost 900,000 people in the UK who have been out of work for more than a year. This is an area where more government action is needed."

Notes to editors:

Unemployment figures published today are available from:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/november-2012/statistical-bulletin.html

IPPR's new report - Saving the Swedish model: Learning from Sweden's return to full employment in the late 1990s - is available to download from: http://www.ippr.org/publication/55/9896/saving-the-swedish-model-learning-from-swedens-return-to-full-employment-in-the-late-1990s

IPPR North's interim report of the Northern Economic Futures Commission is available from: http://ippr.org/publications/55/8992/northern-prosperity-is-national-prosperity-nefc-interim-report

IPPR's report - Jobs for the Future: The path back to full employment in the UK - is available from http://www.ippr.org/publications/55/7938/jobs-for-the-future-the-path-back-to-full-employment-in-the-uk

IPPR's report - A path back to growth - is available from: http://ippr.org/publication/55/9438/a-path-back-to-growth

Contact:

Richard Darlington, 07525 481 602, r.darlington@ippr.org