Unemployment Follow

Considering the state of the UK economy, the figures for employment appear to present a paradox. While GDP has fallen by around 4 percent since the start of the slump in early 2008, employment is down by less than 1 percent over the same timescale. And the latest official figures show that employment has actually increased over recent months. What is going on? How can the economy have flat-lined, while employment seems to be holding up?

New figures released by the House of Commons library show how rising unemployment has hit ethnic minorities harder than the population in general.

Around 50 people came to a protest outside Selly Oak job centre in Birmingham yesterday, Saturday, at just a day’s notice after a desperate man set himself on fire there.

The German Pirate Party has captured the imagination of millions of young and unemployed voters but, asks Mark Bergfeld, are they really the radical anti-establishment force they claim to be?

In March 2011 several regular Guardian columnists analysed the crisis in the Spanish state and the response to "austerity" by the population. All agreed that young people were "apathetic" and even "docile".

More than 92,000 jobs were "up for grabs" at the Sun’s "Sunemployment" roadshow—or so the newspaper claimed.

A4e, the workfare company, stands accused of being involved in a vast fraud scandal.

The previous columns in this series looked at how the ruling class tries to weaken the working class by dividing it. It sets employed workers against unemployed, and those who claim benefits against those who do not.

Last week we looked at how unemployment is built into capitalism. The system produces a "reserve army of labour"—a pool of jobless workers—and plays them off against those with jobs to drive down wages for everyone.

Around 300 people joined a "dole queue" protest outside Downing Street as Tory chancellor George Osborne announced his latest austerity budget.

Disabled workers facing the sack joined a central London protest as the latest unemployment figures were announced this morning (Wednesday).

The government claims its workfare scheme has always been "voluntary". But unemployed young people forced onto the schemes say that’s a lie.