Unemployment at 30-year high

Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf

UNEMPLOYMENT figures in Jersey have soared to their highest level for 30 years.
According to official statistics released this morning, 1,200 people were registered as unemployed at the end of January – the highest number since 1980. Since the recession began in 2008, the number of people out of work has climbed steadily by 360 a year.
The group hardest hit by the downturn seems to be teenagers, who are finding it increasingly difficult to get a job. Of the 1,200 people on the register, 770 were listed as actively seeking work – and of those people, a quarter were aged between 16 and 19.
Although there have been slight changes to the way that the figures are collected, the statistics suggest that this is the worst recession to hit Jersey in modern times.
However, Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf insisted that fiscal stimulus measures – to kick-start the economy and keep people in work by bringing forward £44 million of public spending – were working and that Jersey was weathering the downturn well. (from CTV)

Still less than a third of the figure that economists put at being ideal. Shows how overheated our economies are.

Head of statistics Duncan Gibaut

UNEMPLOYMENT has jumped by ten per cent in a month to hit an all-time record of 1,320 for the end of February.
Almost a quarter of those out of work are teenagers and eight per cent of the total – 110 individuals – have been unemployed for a year or more.
The number of people registered as unemployed and actively seeking work is 290 greater than at the same time last year, according to the registered unemployment figures published by the States Statistics Unit today.
It states that almost two-thirds of people registered as unemployed are receiving benefits from the States. (from JEP)