Manufacturing jobs fall below 2.75m

The latest data, released a day early by the Office for National Statistics because some figures leaked by mistake, showed there were 2.73 million jobs in manufacturing, down 160,000 on a year ago. But commenting on the statistics, Ian Brinkley, associate director at The Work Foundation, said that although the overall figures were dismal and manufacturing employment was still falling, it was finance and business services and retail and hospitality that accounted for the biggest falls in the current set of figures. Total unemployment across all sectors has reached 2.22 million, up 244,000 on the previous three months to December and 592,000 higher than a year ago. Dr John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said: “The shock in today’s jobless figures is not that they have been released a day early but rather that they paint a far worse picture of the state of the jobs market than expected. A rise in unemployment of almost a quarter of a million in a single quarter is truly appalling. “While the recession is now hitting every sector, every occupation and every region the big losers are young people. Youth employment prospects are crumbling, with the toll of job losses falling most heavily on the under-25s. One in 6 18-24 year olds in the jobs market are already unemployed and these are yet to be joined by the ‘class of 09’ school leavers and new college graduates. It will be a bleak summer and autumn for this year’s crop of young talent.”