CWU deplores worsening job figures

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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UK unemployment went up by 48,000 to 2.67 million in the three months to December, taking it to 8.4%, the highest figure for 16 years. The number of young people without a job rose 22,000 to 1.04m, taking the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds to 22.2%.

0CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: "CWU members don't need to be told how bad this is ­- many of them are experiencing the reality of this deeply depressing news. Yesterday we had the devastating announcement by call centre group HCL that it is closing its Armagh site and cutting 255 jobs in Northern Ireland. The outsourcing company has another site in Belfast which is also expected to suffer job losses.

"At the same time, nearly 450 workers are set to lose their jobs in Liverpool because of Virgin Media's plan to close its Albert Dock call centre.

"This comes at a time when inflation, despite yesterday's fall, is still at 3.6%, meaning that prices are increasing at almost twice the rate of wages. For millions of people things are still getting worse with bills rising and incomes failing to keep pace.

"We will fight every step of the way to reverse these job losses and to protect our members from the widespread erosion on their standard of living."

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber noted that the unemployment figures are not quite as bad as at the end of last year but said: "We desperately need more full-time jobs paying decent wages."

[fishtank]

The number of young people without a job rose 22,000 to 1.04m, taking the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds to 22.2%.

Considering that this is only the figure for those claiming benefits it's a frightening statistic.
Add on those still in education,further education and various schemes i think you would be lucky to have half of all 16-24year olds actually working and financially contributing to society.
And how many of them are part-time?
Some future we are creating.

[silly suffolk]

read on the cwu web site that our union deplores the worsening unemployment figures. but then i read the latest mail centres under review [to be closed] on the royal mail web site is part of a procedure which is fully supported by the cwu. at a time of high unemploment why oh why do our union leaders continue to support a policy of closing perfectly good mail centres to concentrate on a few huge mail centres. this may make economic sense to the number crunchers running royal mail, but surely our union should argue for the work to shared around the country and improve the service we provide. hayes and pals our percieved now to be another tranch of management.