Are Government Unemployment Figures Valid?
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Unemployment has always been a huge problem within Britain, with the government regularly attempting to reduce numbers and introduce new policies. There is no doubt that, when publishing unemployment figures, they will want to give the impression that their new tactics are successful. However, it seems that these figures could have been manipulated.
Out of the 62,756,000 people living in the UK, there are 1,799,000 people out of work who are ‘economically active’ – able to work. Yet, out of the 9 million who are ‘economically inactive’, including only those who are ‘temporarily sick’ or ‘discouraged’, there are another 1,086,700 people unemployed. This further adds to the unemployment number of 1.8 million.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has looked further into this, and has suggested that the total number of people looking for work is at least double the official unemployment rate. This problem has arisen because official figures only take into account the people who have recently applied for a job and those who can start work immediately. So, many people are missed out from this – those who want work but haven’t applied recently, or whose circumstances mean that they cannot start straight away.
Overall, the TUC has stated that by combining everyone who is physically able to work with those seeking a job the actual unemployment number reaches 4,103,000, more than double the figure released by the government.