Immigration caps, a lack of business confidence and ineffective welfare policies: how we’ve reached today’s unemployment figures

The ONS today reported that unemployment has risen to 2.68 million, an increase of 118,000. Here we present some of the expert analysis on unemployment issues from our archive. 

The UK’s unemployment problems are too complex to be reduced to simply blaming immigration

Matt Cavanagh argues that the evidence does not prove that cutting immigration will make a significant contribution to reducing unemployment. 

 The current jobs crisis is the result of a lack of business confidence and a shortage of consumers with money to spend

Andrew Sissons takes a look at how we got in this position of ballooning unemployment and suggests that the government should commit to more spending on innovation and infrastructure.

 Youth unemployment is at a record high. Policy makers should focus on welfare and education-to-work programmes and forget about caps on immigration or reductions in the minimum wage

Joblessness among the UK’s younger generation is currently at very high levels, but the rise in youth unemployment began in 2004, well before the onset of recession. Barbara Petrongolo and John Van Reenen consider potential explanations.