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UK unemployment fell 88,000 in the three months to April this year to 2.43 million, the biggest drop since the summer of 2000, latest data shows.

The unemployment rate was 7.7%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), down from 7.9% in the previous quarter.

However, the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in May rose by 19,600 to 1.49 million.

The rise was the biggest since July 2009, and larger than expected.

The official unemployment figure – which is based on a survey – has been diverging from the claimant count for several months.

The claimant count – which has now risen for the third month in a row – has been telling a much more downbeat story about the state of the jobs market most recently.

However, analysts caution that some of the rise in the claimant count may be attributable to changes in benefits rules.
Public versus private

The number of people who left unemployment during the quarter was almost matched by the number who entered new jobs, according to the latest ONS survey data.

source: bbc

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Internships are rapidly becoming one of the best ways to offer basic training to the young high school or college graduates. As well, using interns it is somehow beneficial for the companies as they do not have to offer them a normal salary. More than that, at the end of the internship, the companies will have already experienced workers, therefore the young graduates might want get a decent job after only 3 months of training and accumulating experience in the working field.

However, there is a bit of a misunderstanding in UK regarding the internship and the interns: UK managers seem to offer internships just to avoid spending more money on hiring experienced people. Moreover, after the internships come to an end (they can last from 3 months to 1 year), managers are not “forced” by law to hire them.

By taking a look at the statistics, we can see that about 17% of the UK managers are hiring interns just in order to pay less. However, 95% of the interviewed managers reported that the presence of the interns in their company was useful for their enterprise.

The sad part comes from the young graduates who are not aware of their working rights. According to the UK laws, unpaid internships are illegal, and can be punished even with jail sentences. However, some companies are still offering unpaid internships, as they promise a stable working place after the internship period expires.

According to the UK laws, the minimum wage for tasks that can be called “work” is £6.08 an hour. And even if there are some managers who claim that the internship itself can be considered payment, it is obvious that this kind of practice has to stop as it violates the UK laws and constitution.

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Even though the rumor mill speaks a lot of unpaid internships, interns that are placed to do only things that nobody likes to do, in reality, the situation is pretty much different.

Even though a lot of companies from UK (especially small ones) tend not to hire interns, as they do not have enough employees to give basic training and to deal with the interns, there are some companies (not just multinational companies) that are still offering internships for the  young high school and college graduates.

According to Mike Hill, chief executive of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU), the rumor mill is by far inaccurate. That is mainly because, the small companies are always looking forward for hiring “fresh meat”, therefore hiring interns for a period of 3-6 months is definitely beneficial for the company, as right after the internship ends, interns can be hired full time, as they will have a tunnel vision upon most of the aspects from the company.

Moreover, even if not everybody from the companies is willing to say “yes” from the first time when it comes to an intern, most of the graduates who have passed through internships, as well as their bosses, claim that passing through such a period was a tough, but full of surprises experience, as they have learned to deal with problems they did not even hear about in the college or high school. And, as the minimum wage was somewhere near £200 per week (9 to five program, 5 days per week), being in an internship wasn’t a bad experience at all, especially that this kind of thing weighs heavily in a CV.

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UK unemployment rose by 44,000 to almost 2.5 million in the three months to the end of December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

Youth unemployment rose to a fresh record high, with more than one in five 16 to 24-year-olds out of work after a rise of 66,000 to 965,000.

The unemployment rate is now 7.9%, with youth unemployment running at 20.5%.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance also increased, by 2,400 last month to 1.46 million.

Prime Minister David Cameron said unemployment, particularly among the young, was “a matter of great regret”.

But he stressed that it had been a problem for some time.

The number of people in part-time work because they could not find a full-time job rose by 44,000 to 1.19 million, another high since records began in 1992.

“The latest UK labour market figures provide further evidence that the jobs recovery has gone into reverse,” said economist Vicky Redwood.

Long-term unemployment also deteriorated, with 17,000 more people out of work for more than a year, to a total of 833,000.

Other data from the ONS showed that average earnings rose by 1.8% in the year to December last year, slightly down on the 2.1% growth in the year to November.

The figures also showed that unemployment fell in Scotland by 13,000, but rose in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

source: bbc

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The number of people on Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for more than a year has nearly doubled, the TUC has said.

Those claiming JSA for more than 12 months rose to 201,015 in November 2009, up from 103,930 in December 2008.

And 58 local authorities now have over 1,000 long-term claimants, compared with 19 last year.

The TUC is urging the government to extend its job guarantee for young people to everyone who has been unemployed for 18 months.

The TUC made the calculations using official claimant count data.

It wants to see the long-term unemployed entitled to a job paying at least the minimum wage for a minimum of six months.

Job Seeker’s Allowance currently stands at £50.95 a week for 16-24 year olds, and £64.30 a week for those aged 25 and over

source/full story: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8427237 .stm

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