Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned that government officials are yet to comprehend the full scale of the country's jobs crisis. He says hundreds of thousands of people are being missed by official unemployment figures. A study conducted by the Alliance for Full Employment backed by Brown, reveals at least 300,000 out-of-work people across the UK are being missed by official figures. The study calls for urgent review of official measures of employment and unemployment.
While the official unemployment rate stands at 4.9 per cent or 1.7 million people, the study suggests other sources such as tax records, benefit claimant count and surveys state unemployment was already over 2 million and likely to rise to 3.5 million later this year. Brown said, “By underestimating the true scale of unemployment, the government has underplayed the steps needed to help people back into work. It has devastating real-world consequences.”
He added, “The true picture revealed in our report shows beyond any shadow of doubt the government has to totally rethink the timid and inadequate steps it has taken so far to support full employment in Britain.”
