The latest employment figures underline the depth of the economic recession we’re in with the number of people classified as unemployed passing the two and a quarter million mark in the three months to the end of April.

Over that period unemployment in the UK rose by 232,000 and has gone up by 605,000 over the past year. It now stands at 2.26 million – representing an unemployment rate of 7.2%.

The claimant count in May also rose - by 39,300 to reach 1.54 million or 4.8%.

This means it has more than doubled over the past year.

The number of vacancies fell in the three months to May by 38,000 to stand at 444,000 – which was down 230,000 (over a third) on the year before. And the number of people made redundant in the three months to April was 302,000, up 36,000 on the previous quarter and up by 191,000 on the same time last year.

However, some 29.1 million people were still in paid employment in the three months to April – of whom 27.76 million were classified as being of ‘working age’ (i.e being between 16 and state pension age).  The ‘working age’ employment rate dropped over the last 3 months by 0.8% to 73.3%, and was down by 1.5% (or 433,000) over the past 12 months.

The picture in respect of older workers in particular also remains mixed…….

The number of people aged 50+ registered as unemployed went up in the three months to April by 44,000 (+14.2%) to stand at 356,000 (70% of whom are men). Over the past year the figure has increased by just under 48%, or 115,000.

The claimant count amongst the 50+s rose to almost 240,000 in May, an increase of almost 93% (+115,000) over the year before.

The number of people in work 50 to state pension age fell by 7,000 over the past three months to 6.59 million and was down 2,000 on the year. Although the number of people in work over state pension age rose once again (+2,000 in the past 3 months) and is up 34,000 over the year to stand at 1.34 million.