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date: 15 November 2010

embargo: 00.01hrs Wednesday 17 November 2010

Government must tackle crisis of long-term unemployment, says TUC

As new unemployment figures are released later this morning (Wednesday) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the TUC has expressed concerned that nearly 250,000 adults have been claiming JSA for over a year.

There are currently 245,370 adults in England, Scotland and Wales who have been unemployed and claiming JSA for 12 months or more, more than double the number that were in this position at the start of the recession - in January 2008 112,900 claimants had been unemployed for a year or more.

A TUC analysis of official statistics shows that this increase is a result of hundreds of thousands of jobs being lost during the recession and insufficient new ones being created. The TUC believes this situation is likely to get worse as the government's spending cuts are expected to put at least an extra million people on the dole.

Birmingham has the highest number of long-term unemployed claimants - 12,475, which is a 42 per cent increase since January 2008. Glasgow has 5,545 long-term unemployed JSA claimants (a 121 per cent increase since January 2008) and in Liverpool there are 4,760 people claiming JSA who've not had work for more than a year (a 32 per cent increase).

By the wider ILO measure of unemployment, there are currently 811,000 people who are facing long-term unemployment, an increase of 110 per cent since the start of the recession.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The UK has 2.5 million people out of work not because we're a nation of workshy scroungers without a work ethic, but because with an average five unemployed people chasing every vacancy, there is a distinct lack of jobs.

'The number of people who have been out of work for a year or longer has more than doubled since January 2008. Unemployed people are the victims here, not the villains.

'The government should stop blaming unemployed people for their predicament and start creating rather than cutting jobs.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Top 20 local authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales with the highest number of people claiming JSA for 12 months or more, September 2010

Figures are from NOMIS

- Figures for every unitary authority in Great Britain are available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/Claimant_Count_Stats.pdf

- ONS statistics shows that long-term unemployment on the ILO measure was 811,000 in July 2010, an increase of 425,000 from January 2008 when 386,000 people had been out of work for 12 months or more. ILO figures are UK-wide.

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

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Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Elly Gibson T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: egibson@tuc.org.uk

Press release (600 words) issued 17 Nov 2010