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Unemployment

I, too, welcome the opportunity to debate unemployment. Aside from the loss of a family home or a bereavement, there can be few more traumatic things than losing a job. Yet since we last debated this topic on 7 October last year, another 146,000 people have lost their jobs and unemployment is predicted by the CBI to reach 2.9 million by the start of 2010. The claimant count was 1.23 million in January 2009—the highest figure since July 1999—and is up 480,000 on the year. The total number of economically inactive people of working age now stands at 7.86 million. As the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) said, more than 5 million of those are on inactive benefits. We all know that many of those people want to get back into the job market. Unlike in previous recessions, today's unemployment is not restricted to manual jobs or to the north, Wales or Scotland. No, it is rising evenly across all employment sectors and in all parts of the country.