London 2012 boost as unemployment falls to lowest level in a year .

Wednesday, 15 August 2012 10:14

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Most of the quarterly fall in unemployment was recorded in the capital while the number of part-time workers reached a record high of 8.07m, and those working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job is 1.42m - another all-time high since records began in 1992.

According to official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the unemployment rate is now at eight per cent, while the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance is 1.59m, down by 5,900.

The number of people in work increased by almost 201,000 to almost 30m - the highest since last summer - with half of the rise coming in London, with youth unemployment falling by 4,000.

Earlier it was claimed young people looking for their first job face the toughest outlook since 1994.

And the government is exacerbating the problem by cutting vital financial support for students, pricing them out of a university education, a report out today said.

Youth unemployment has reached 'crisis levels', says the TUC, which reports more than one in five 16- to 24-year-olds are out of work compared to one in seven in 1992.

Currently, more than 500,000 young people have been stuck on the dole for at least six months, said the report.

The union's general secretary Brendan Barber warned: 'If this continues we could lose a generation of talented, highly qualified youngsters to blighted careers, debt and under-achievement.'

He said government spending cuts, as a result of the economic crisis, were making the problem worse for jobseekers.