Unemployment ‘hit 8.3% in May’

Amid the ongoing recession, UK unemployment rates reached 8.3 per cent during May, new figures have revealed.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, in the eurozone this was an increase of 0.2 per cent over the course of the month and 2.1 percentage points higher than seen in May 2008.

Furthermore, in March, the UK saw unemployment hit 7.2 per cent, 0.1 per cent higher than that recorded in February and an increase of two percentage points from March 2008.

The news comes after the Trade Union Congress (TUC) warned that unemployment was likely to be as bad as, if not worse than, the last recession of the 1990s.

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Speaking at the time, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The picture for jobs and growth is already bleaker than the last recession and is looking much more like the deep recession of the 1980s every day."

The group had also earlier predicted that UK job losses were likely to continue until autumn 2010.