Unemployment in Bury has risen to 4589.

While the lastest figures represent a slight increase from May to June of 0.7%, they show that unemployment in Bury has doubled over the past year. There are now 78314 unemployed (on job seekers allowance) across Greater Manchester. The rate of unemployment in Bury matches the national average at 4.1%.

1 IN 3 UNDER 25

As if that isn’t alarming enough the amount of young unemployed (16-24’s) now stands at 1595 a staggering 34.8% of the total Bury unemployed. Or to put it another way 1 in 3 Bury unemployed are under 25. Bury now has the highest proportion of young unemployed across Greater Manchester. Overall there are 25115 young unemployed in the region.

LONG TERM UNEMPLOYED UP 113.9% IN A YEAR

Meanwhile those that have been out of work for over 6 months has now reached 1080 in Bury, representing 23.5% of the total unemployed, up 13.7% since last month and a staggering 113.9% in a year.

Sadly the number of vacancies doesn’t lift the gloom with a total of 531 vacancies posted in June- down 11% on last month and down 41% compared to the same time last year.

While incredibly some commentators are suggesting that we are starting to see a the light at the end of the tunnel due to the slowing increase of unemployment, personally I remain sceptical for now. After all now is the time we start to see a lot of seasonal jobs traditionally easing unemployment figures for the summer. If that is actually represented in these figures then things are even worse than we fear.

With businesses still struggling to get funding from banks (despite Mr Browns insistence) and a mass of university leavers hitting the jobs market any time soon, we need positive assertive measures now to stimulate the economy further.

Labour are almost paralysed with dithering and despair and effectively making a bad situation worse, when we desperately need a Government that can take decisive action and initiatives.