Almost a quarter of a million people have now been on the dole for more than a year in the UK - more than twice as many as at the start of the last recession - and lots of them will be spending their second or even third successive Christmas out of work, says the TUC today (Wednesday).
The TUC analysis of official unemployment statistics reveals that more than a third of the 232 local authority areas across the UK (88 council areas) now have more than a thousand residents who have been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for at least 12 months, compared to just 26 council areas in December 2007.
At the beginning of the last recession, at the close of 2007, 117,845 individuals had been claiming JSA for more than 12 months. Now, almost three years on in November 2010, there are 243,330 who have been struggling to find work for more than a year.
Northern Ireland has seen the sharpest increase in long-term unemployment in the past year with a 3.2 per cent increase - there are now 14,325 people who have been on the dole for at least a year, up from 9,860 since December 2009.
A table of the top 20 areas which have seen the biggest increases in long-term unemployment shows that 12 of the areas featured - including Castlereagh, Newry and Mourne and Banbridge - are in Northern Ireland.
Parts of Greater London have also been badly affected with three boroughs - Hackney, Kensington and Chelsea, and Sutton - also suffering large increases in the number of long-term JSA claimants.
Other regions of the UK affected by big increases in the numbers out of work for more than a year since last Christmas are Wales, which has seen a 2.7 per cent increase, Yorkshire and the Humber (2.5 per cent) and the South East (2.5 per cent).
Total long-term unemployment, including those who have not been claiming JSA, rose to 839,000 in October 2010, a 34 per cent increase on the year and the highest level since February 1997.
The number of unemployed people outnumbering vacancies by more than five to one across the UK - rising to around 20 to one in some employment blackspots - and the jobs crisis could get even worse in the new year, the TUC warns.
Commenting on the figures, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘Across the country thousands and thousands of people have been struggling to find work - some of them for several years now - and for their families there won’t be much to celebrate this Christmas.
‘While many families with working adults may be tightening their belts a little this Christmas, the thousands of long-term unemployed households will be anxiously juggling their family budgets, knowing only too well that their JSA of £65.45 isn’t going to buy much Christmas cheer this year.
‘And with many local councils in the process of issuing redundancy notices to thousands of their employees over the coming weeks, the future for those about to lose their jobs and those who’ve been out of work for some time looks especially bleak.
‘The government’s huge cuts to public spending will see thousands of public sector workers being made redundant in the new year, and those working in the private sector could be hit just as hard.
‘We hope many of the people affected will bring their families to join our demonstration against the cuts on 26 March next year to try to show ministers the damage and widespread misery the cuts are causing, and persuade them that it is not too late to change course.’
The latest long-term unemployment figures can be found in table 9 of the ONS labour market statistics December 2010, available at www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsuk1210.pdf