http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7947766.stm
UK unemployment has risen above two million for the first time since 1997, official figures have shown.
During the three months to January, the number of people unemployed totalled 2.03 million, up by 165,000, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
For February, the number of people getting jobseeker's allowance added a record 138,400 to reach 1.39 million.
There are now 10 jobseekers for every vacancy advertised in UK jobcentres, the TUC claimed earlier this week.
The ONS added that the unemployment rate jumped to 6.5% between November and January.
Business warnings
Earlier this month the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the economy had worsened "significantly" so far in 2009.
It also made the gloomy prediction that by the second half of next year unemployment across the UK would reach 3.2 million, which is slightly more than 10% of the workforce.
Unemployment is rising as the first recession in the UK since 1991 continues to bite.
Last month, business body the CBI predicted there would be 2.9 million people unemployed by the end of 2009, breaching the three million mark in 2010.
Alan Tomlinson, an accountant who guides firms through insolvency, said he had "never been so busy".
"Companies of all sizes and in all sectors are folding by the day, putting more and more people out of a job," he said.
"The CBI's prediction, last month, that unemployment will peak at just over three million in the second quarter of 2010 could prove to be wildly optimistic."
The International Monetary Fund predicted on Wednesday that the UK's recession would last longer than that of any of the world's other major economies.
It warned the UK would be the only member of the G7 group of leading industrial countries that would continue to see its economy contract in 2010.
UK unemployment has risen above two million for the first time since 1997, official figures have shown.
During the three months to January, the number of people unemployed totalled 2.03 million, up by 165,000, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
For February, the number of people getting jobseeker's allowance added a record 138,400 to reach 1.39 million.
There are now 10 jobseekers for every vacancy advertised in UK jobcentres, the TUC claimed earlier this week.
The ONS added that the unemployment rate jumped to 6.5% between November and January.
Business warnings
Earlier this month the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the economy had worsened "significantly" so far in 2009.
It also made the gloomy prediction that by the second half of next year unemployment across the UK would reach 3.2 million, which is slightly more than 10% of the workforce.
Unemployment is rising as the first recession in the UK since 1991 continues to bite.
Last month, business body the CBI predicted there would be 2.9 million people unemployed by the end of 2009, breaching the three million mark in 2010.
Alan Tomlinson, an accountant who guides firms through insolvency, said he had "never been so busy".
"Companies of all sizes and in all sectors are folding by the day, putting more and more people out of a job," he said.
"The CBI's prediction, last month, that unemployment will peak at just over three million in the second quarter of 2010 could prove to be wildly optimistic."
The International Monetary Fund predicted on Wednesday that the UK's recession would last longer than that of any of the world's other major economies.
It warned the UK would be the only member of the G7 group of leading industrial countries that would continue to see its economy contract in 2010.
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