As fears grow of a double dip recession, unemployment in the UK is set to rise to its highest level for 17 years this week, putting pressure on the government to come up with a better economic strategy. With unemployment figures to be released on Wednesday, experts anticipate the numbers of unemployed to surpass the 2.5 million peak seen earlier this year and the number of young people out of work to hit the one million mark. The new figures, which take into account the last three months, are expected to be the worst since records began in the early 1990s.
The young have been disproportionately affected. With a growing number of graduates flooding the market, the 16-24 year old age group find it increasingly difficult to find employment.
Along with young people, women have also emerged as the one of the hardest hit groups, this could be because more women work in the public sector and this sector is the facing the brunt of the cuts. The Charted Institute of Personal and Development, predicting total job cuts in the sector will be 50% higher than forecast.
