According to official statistics, one in five adults in Britain are out of work. The revealing statistics reveal that there is well over 8 million people who are declared “economically inactive”, which is a record number according to the Office of National Statistics.
People who are labelled as “economically inactive” are students, the retired, parents who stay at home with children, the long term sick, and unsurprisingly, people who have simple given up looking for non-existent jobs. Before you get the wrong idea, the 8.05 million figure does not include the 2.46 million unemployed figure. When you add these sums together, it really does put the situation into perspective. Presently 21.2 per cent of the entire British adult population are out of work.
This startling revelation comes just as it is also revealed that the unemployment figure has fell by 7,000 in the three months to November, and now currently stands at 2.47 million. No doubt Mr Brown and his cronies will be making a stink about this, claiming full responsibility for lowing unemployment, but fall in numbers is nothing to do with government intervention.
In fact there are two main reasons why the figure has fallen.
Firstly, people are becoming desperate and are willing to accept low pay and shorter hours in return in keeping their jobs, which many families as a result will feel the impact of lower incomes for years to come, as a record breaking 1.03 million are working part time because it is impossible to secure full time work.
Secondly, the fall in unemployment is also a result of the rise in the “economically inactive” people, including school leavers who have chosen to go to college rather than spending many months looking for work which just doesn’t exist.
And while the government try and improve their public image by boasting about the fall in unemployment, the crisis will just continue, and families will continue to struggle on extremely low wages.
