The statistics agency has announced that ‘official’ unemployment is now nudging the 2 million mark - at 1.97 million. But, with about 3 million on the sick and on other benefits who are not officially unemployed, UK ‘real’ unemployment is about 5 million. As the working age population is no more than about 30 million, that means

Spanish unemployment shot up again in February to 3.48 million in February, whilst consumer confidence took another knock amidst fears Spain’s jobless would now hit 4 million as early this summer, and maybe 4.5 million, or nearly 20% of the workforce. Right, this the latest in my monthly reports on Spain, but before I go

Unemployment in Britain climbed nearer the 2 million mark in January as it soared to its highest level since 1997. The Office for National Statistics said today the wider ILO measure of unemployment, which also counts those seeking work but not claiming benefit, rose to 1.971 million in the three months to December. Many economists had expected it to breach the 2 million mark. The number of people...

Britain's leading employers' organisation warned Gordon Brown yesterday that unemployment would crash through three million, just ahead of the likeliest date for the next general election. In its latest snapshot of the economy, the CBI said 2009 would see the single biggest drop in output of any year since the second world war and lead to a rise of more than a million in the jobless tota...

From the table opposite showing the number of government jobs on offer, you’d be amazed to hear rumours this morning that unemployment will be confirmed at two million later today. But alas, that’s unemployment in the engine of our economy,...

Unemployment has risen above two million for the first time since Labour was elected in 1997, according to the latest data.

Unemployment in Britain rose to 1.97 million in the last three months of 2008, official statistics have shown.

More people are out of work than at any time since New Labour came to power, with unemployment now hitting the two million mark.

Unemployment has soared above the two million mark, new figures out today are expected to show.

Today's unemployment figures do not make for cheery reading. Youth unemployment is up to over a million and unemployment overall has reached 2.62 million, meaning that the unemployment rate is the highest it has been for 15 years. Laura Kuenssberg tweets one particularly striking statistic: 'Number of UK Nationals in work fell 280k compared to this time last year, number of non-UK Nation...