TUC survey says new year outlook is bleak for unemployed

Almost a quarter of a million people will be spending their second or even third Christmas on the dole this year, according to a survey by the TUC. More than a third of the 232 local authorities across the UK now have more than 1,000 residents who have been claiming jobseeker's allowance (JSA) for at least 12 months. This compares with just 26 in December 2007. "Across the country thousands and thousands of people have been struggling to find work, some of them for several years now. For their families, there won't be much to celebrate this Christmas," said the TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber. "The government's huge cuts to public spending will see thousands of public sector workers being made redundant in the new year, and those working in the private sector could be hit just as hard," he added. Northern Ireland has seen the sharpest increase in long-term unemployment in the past year with a 3.2% increase, from 9,860 in December 2009 to 14,325. Parts of Greater London have also been badly affected: Hackney, Kensington and Chelsea, and Sutton – have suffered the largest increases in the number of long-term jobseeker's allowance claimants. Imran, 32, has been unemployed since October 2009, when he returned to Britain after working as the regional head of strategy and consulting for the Middle East and North Africa for one of the world's largest specialist information groups. But when the job he had returned to Britain for – a £150,000 a year post as senior consultant for a large management company – was cut, the Cambridge University graduate found himself unemployed. "I'm desperate to work but am variously told that I'm either over-qualified or don't have the right experience, because I was working overseas," he said. "I have been reduced to living a brutal, hand-to-mouth existence, hoping someone at the charity I volunteer at will buy me lunch or offer me a cup of coffee. I walk past homeless people and know that there's a genuine possibility I could end up there too." Total long-term unemployment, including those who have not been claiming JSA, rose to 839,000 in October 2010, a 34% increase on the year and the highest level since February 1997. Unemployed people outnumber vacancies by more than five to one in many areas across the UK. A survey by Catch22 , a charity for young people, has found that almost one in five 16- to 24-year-olds are unemployed. They say that ending the Future Jobs Fund (FJF) a year early and not providing an immediate replacement programme will force young people to wait three months before being given a work opportunity.