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Responding to the latest unemployment figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (Wednesday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

date: 15 February 2012

embargo: For immediate release

Responding to the latest unemployment figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (Wednesday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'These figures are bad, although thankfully not quite the disaster we saw at the end of last year.

'With one in three jobseekers looking for work for over a year, and around six unemployed people for every job vacancy, the government's mantra that there are 'plenty of jobs out there' just doesn't ring true.

'It's encouraging to see a small rise in employment, but this is entirely down to people taking part-time work because there are no full-time jobs available.

'Any job is better than no job at all, even if it's on far lower pay and shorter hours, but people cannot afford to do this indefinitely. We desperately need more full-time jobs paying decent wages.

'Minister must acknowledge our jobs crisis and recognise that real action to boost growth is the only way to tackle it.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Top 10 employment blackspots, January 2012

Local authority

Region

Claimants

Vacancies

Ratio

Clackmannanshire

Scotland

1,893

27

70.1

East Dunbartonshire

Scotland

1,903

68

28.0

Lewisham

London

10,791

393

27.5

West Dunbartonshire

Scotland

3,969

148

26.8

Eilean Siar

Scotland

554

21

26.4

Hackney

London

11,019

455

24.2

Isle of Wight

South East

3,964

171

23.2

East Ayrshire

Scotland

4,872

212

23.0

East Renfrewshire

Scotland

1,423

62

23.0

North Lanarkshire

Scotland

12,517

571

21.9

Source: nomisweb

- The labour market statistics are available at www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_254579.pdf

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

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Gibson T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: egibson@tuc.org.uk

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