The impact of the financial crisis on the UK job market and employment (2007-2009)

Module: PM021-Aspects of British Culture and Society

Name: JUN YU WU
Student Number: 0908108
Tutor: Jeff Meadowcroft
Word Count: 1,970

Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………...Page 3
2. Global financial crisis (2007-2009)………………………………………Page 3
3. Influence on world job market……………………………………………Page 3-4
4. Influence on the UK job market………………………………………….Page 4-5 4.1 Short-term changes……………………………………………………..Page4-5 4.2 Long-term changes……………………………………………………….Page 5
5. Analysis of current situation in the UK………………………………Page 5 5.1 “British jobs for British workers”………………………………….Page 6 5.2 Job
There were 997,000 employees and self-employed people working part-time due to the tight job market. The right graph reveals that the unemployment rate jumped from below 5.5 per cent at the end of 2007 to 7.8 percent for July to September 2009. The number of unemployed people increased by 30,000 over the quarter to reached 2.46 million, which were the smallest quarterly increases in unemployment since March-May 2008. The jobless rate for 18 to 24 year olds rose by 0.7 per cent on the quarter to reach 18.0 per cent, the highest corresponding figure since 1992. (Office for National Statistics, 2009)

2. Long-term changes

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The graph shows that the number of unemployed in the first three quarters of the current recession (quarter 3 2008 to quarter 1 2009), have increased by 530,000. This is 1.7 times higher than the increase of 304,000 in the first three quarters of the 1990s recession, and 1.2 times higher than the increase of 434,000 in the 1980s recession. In quarter 1 2009, the unemployment rate rose by 12.4 per cent on the quarter to reach 2.2 million. This was the largest quarter on quarter increase since the fourth quarter of the 1980s recession. Admittedly, the changes are influenced by the size of the population, which is larger now than in the past. Unemployment levels and rates after the 1980s recession did not return to the levels before the start of