Why the UK’s rising unemployment is not necessarily a bad sign: Starmer
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says rising UK unemployment can be interpreted as a positive sign that previously inactive people are starting to look for work.
Speaking in the Commons Liaison Committee on Monday (21 July), Starmer said the fact that employment and joblessness had been rising at the same time had created a ‘slight contradiction’ in the economy.
“The employment rate is up 0.8 percentage points over the year,
and the unemployment rate is also up slightly. Now, you may think that is a slight contradiction, but, as you will know, what it indicates in the data, on my own analysis, is that the inactivity numbers have gone down,” he said.
“So, those not even looking for work have begun to look for work, hence the unemployment figure has gone up at the same time that the employment figure has gone up.”
Starmer said this now casts a spotlight on whether jobcentres are doing what is expected of them in helping those who are now looking for work, and those who have been looking for work, into work.
“We have already started the programme of changing how jobcentres work, because there is not enough time coaching and helping people into work,” he said.
I also do not think that many businesses are actually going to the jobcentre when they have a vacancy. I have talked to lots of businesses myself and asked, ‘When you have a vacancy, are you listing it at the jobcentre so that we can match the local jobs that are available with those who are looking for work?’
“The answer is that most of them do not go to the jobcentre. We have already started a lot of change in jobcentres, and we need to see it through for the very reasons you have identified,” said Starmer.
He concluded by noting that the government needs to change the way that jobcentres work altogether – the very nature of them – which is
part of the work that his cabinet is doing now.
