UK unemployment rate at highest in 14 years
Associated Press, London | Wed, 08/12/2009 5:06 PM
Britain's number of jobless increased by 220,000 in the three months to June, hitting a total of over 2.4 million and putting the unemployment rate at 7.8 percent, its highest since 1995, official figures showed Wednesday.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of people with a job fell by 271,000 between April and June to 28.9 million.
The figures are likely to put pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has described unemployment levels as unacceptable.
The figures id shows some positive trends, with a slowdown in the number of redundancies - down by 9,000 quarter-on-quarter to 277,000 in the three months to June.
Vacancies fell to a record low of 427,000 in the three months to July, down by 26,000 on the prious quarter.
