Jobless total soars to a 13-year high

A hundred thousand people a month are being made redundant as the number out of work soars to a 13-year high. The jobless total has reached the highest since late 1996, just before Labour came to power. Figures from the Office of National Statistics showed that 302,000 people were made redundant in the three months to April, 36,000 more than in the previous quarter and the most since records began in 1995. At the same time, the number of vacancies hit a record low. The number of people classed as officially out of work has soared to 2.26 million, an increase of 232,000 over the quarter and 605,000 over the past year. Britain’s unemployment rate is now 7.2 per cent, up 0.7 per cent from the previous three months.