It's true...worse than during the Great Depression !

eeja

From Hansard :

§ The numbers of persons on the registers of the Employment Exchanges in this country were 2,762,219 at 31st August, 26 1931, and 2,741,306 at 23rd May, 1932.

Reported today :

Joblessness will eventually peak at 3.2 million in 2010, British Chamber of Commerce says (The Guardian)

purch

It's true...worse than during the Great Depression !

Yes, and amazingly the population of this great nation has remained exactly constant for the last 80 years as well :eek:

Reaper

You beat me to it.

1931: 46 million
Now: 61 million

Source

gopher2

Presumably you could also add that up to 50% of the current figures could be women whereas in 1931 very few married women worked and the number listed as unemployed close to zero.

eeja

purch wrote: »

Yes, and amazingly the population of this great nation has remained exactly constant for the last 80 years as well :eek:

Point taken purch.
Of course there has been a huge change in the UK population make up since the 30's ! Millions died and were killed in the Second World War.
More importantly there has been a huge emigration to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and also...yes to France, Portugal and Spain especially the Costas where many millions have retired to spend their final years.
Set off against this is the huge immigration from the Indian Subcontinent (and the West Indies ).
Nevertheless the figures quoted clearly show in my view the grave seriousness of the current and projected unemployment situation.

purch

Nevertheless the figures quoted clearly show in my view the grave seriousness of the current and projected unemployment situation

Perfectly correct, and as we all know the number recorded as 'Unemployed' and the actual number of people on some form of state benefit and not working are hugely different !!!

paul5046

8% unemployment now, 25% in the thirties. Secondly lots of people lost everything, and thirdly the governemnt did nothing thinking the market had the answer to everything.

its nothing like the thirties.

eeja

Reaper wrote: »

You beat me to it.

1941: 46 million
Now: 61 million

Source

That is an increase of 30 percent in population .
The official and projected figures given by Hansard and Chamber of Commerce is an increase of 20 percent.
We are talking of a small fractional difference which only emphasises the seriousness of the unemployment situation.
The population will certainly not increase by that 10% in the near future (and in fact could decrease due to Polish and other workers leaving in droves.) On the other hand the projected 3.2 million figure could easily increase by the 10 percent gap mentioned by December 2010 the way things are going at present with the UK economy.

gopher2

What it does show is how misleading it can be to blindly compare stats with those of 78 years ago.

The effects of similar figures would also be different. Now most households have two incomes so there will be some cushioning. The various unemployment benefits and child allowances are also likely to be higher so the unemployed will still have some spending capacity to help the economy.

Nonetheless, while the figures for the UK remain below those of the US and most of Europe, they are very scary.

paul5046

gopher2 wrote: »

Nonetheless, while the figures for the UK remain below those of the US and most of Europe, they are very scary.

No worse that the early eighties.

gopher2

paul5046 wrote: »

No worse that the early eighties.

Which as I remember were also very scary.