Responding to the latest unemployment figures out today (Wednesday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
‘No amount of spin can put a gloss on these terrible figures. Worryingly the latest rise in job losses looks less like a bad blip and more like a trend of entrenched high unemployment, with new records being set each month for the number of women and young people out of work.
‘Ministers will desperately attempt to the lay the blame on the Eurozone but it is the UK government alone that is responsible for the huge cull of public sector employment. There are now 12 public sector workers losing their jobs for every new post which is created in the private sector.
‘Rather than picking a fight with itself over Europe, the government must urgently turn its attention to the jobs crisis and invest in employment schemes to get people back into work and stave off the risk of mass long-term unemployment.’