Unemployment Figures Show Disparate Impact On Workers

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show a significant rise in the number of part-time workers in the UK as more people are forced to take on shorter hours or not work at all, and the differing impact on other groups of workers.

Young workers
Whilst the unemployment rate of 18 – 24 year olds has fallen slightly, there were 19,000 less people in that age group unemployed (707,000), compared to the first three months of the year, but the situation for 16-17 year olds was quite different with unemployment rates higher. 216,000 of 16-17 year olds were unemployed, up 13,000 on the beginning of the year, with 10% of them unemployed for more than a year. This issue of high youth unemployment remains a challenge not just for the UK, but for many European member states, as discussed in the ORC Global Diversity Forum.

Part-time workers
A million people now work part-time because they can't get a full-time job. At 7.82 million the part-time employment level was the highest since records began in 1992, and represented more than a quarter of the workforce.

Women workers
And, while there are 283,000 less full-time jobs than there were a year ago, the part-time sector has grown, with 279,000 more people employed part-time. Most of that growth, some 205,000, has been in women working part-time - women's full-time jobs are down 143,000 on last year. Many more women work part-time than men - 5.9m, compared to 1.9m

Foreign workers
The 3.7m workers born outside the UK have seen their jobs fall by 2.7%, compared to 1% for UK-born in the last year. The worst hit, proportionally, are the workers born in Africa - with a decrease of 5%. Seemingly unaffected by the recession are those from the USA - who have seen a rise of 28,000 (38.3%) to 103,000 and from India, whose jobs have risen by 21,000 (6.3%) to 361,000

Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/datablog/2010/jul/14/unemployment-data-ten-things#