Unemployment rises

13 November 2008

The unemployment rate rose to 5.8% in the three months to September 2008, an increase of 0.4% on the previous quarter, and 0.5% over the year.

In numbers, that`s an increase of 140,000 on the previous quarter and 182,000 over the year. In total, 1.82 million people are now unemployed – the highest number since the three months to December 1997, when it reached 1.87 million.

"The thought of becoming unemployed is a worrying prospect for anyone, but it can be particularly nerve-racking for people in debt. Everyone has bills to pay and expenses to meet, but people in debt also have debt repayments on top of all that – and they know that failure to stay on top of those debt payments could rapidly make a bad situation worse."

According to recent figures from the Liberal Democrats, Britain`s personal debt is over £1.4 trillion, and annual debt repayments now total almost £95 billion per year.

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