A member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee has warned that unemployment could reach two million by Christmas.
Issuing a stark warning about the UK economy, David Blanchflower predicted that as many as 2,000 people will lose their jobs every day over the next four months.
Those workers who do escape redundancy will not receive a pay rise, or will be offered a below-inflation increase in their wages, he added.
And he said that unless monetary policymakers move to cut interest rates, there will be no jobs for hundreds of thousands of young school leavers.
"People have to start to respond to the fact that we are in a recession and the danger is that we will be in a very serious and long-lasting recession unless we do something," he remarked.
A recent poll by the TUC found that 13 per cent of UK workers believe they may be out a job in a year’s time, with those in Wales feeling the least confident.
