UK sees 2.5 mn jobless in 2010 Dec qtr

In signs of continuing labour market woes in the UK, a whopping 2.5 million people were unemployed at the end of October-December quarter of 2010.

The British economy, which unexpectedly contracted 0.5% in the last three months of 2010, has embarked on massive austerity measures to bolster its economic situation.

"The unemployment rate for the three months to December 2010 was 7.9%, up 0.1 on the quarter. The total number of unemployed people increased by 44,000 over the quarter to reach 2.49 million," the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today.

Moreover, the count of people seeking unemployment allowance increased by 2,400 between December 2010 and January 2011 to touch 1.46 million.

Out of them, the number of male claimants stood at 1.01 million in January 2011.

ONS in a statement noted that over the six quarters of economic contraction from quarter one 2008, total employment fell by 600,000.

"In the 1980s recession, the final quarter of economic contraction saw employment levels 619,000 lower than pre-recession level. At the end of the 1990s recession, employment was 910,000 lower than it was prior to the recession," it added.

Europe itself is seeing slow economic recovery and many countries including Spain are grappling with high unemployment levels.