The unemployment rate in the UK rose to a 16-year high of 8.4% in the 3 months through November 2011. Unemployment benefits claims also rose for the tenth consecutive month to 1.6 million.
The number of unemployed rose by 118,000 in the three-month period and the number of people with jobs increased by 18,000. The country’s conservative government said that “the increase in employment showed private companies created jobs at a faster pace than the government eliminated them,” according to Bloomberg News. If you say so …
The government expects private employers to hire the workers that the government is firing as it tries to lower its fiscal deficit. But layoffs and plant closings make that a dubious hope at best.
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