Unemployment Stats Grim In North West

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that a total of 282,000 people were unemployed in the region between May and July.

The region's unemployment rate was 8.3% and saw a rise of 1.81% during the period. The North East showed the worst unemployment rate in the UK at 10.7% followed by London at 9.6%.

The outlook for the UK's economic recovery darkened as a surge in jobless youths triggered the largest increase in unemployment in nearly two years.

The country's jobless rate stood at 2.51 million or 7.9% between May and July, the Office for National Statistics said, after the total number of unemployed increased by 80,000.

This was the largest quarterly increase in unemployment since the three months to August 2009, while economists had expected a rise of around 70,000.

Within these figures, the number of unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds surged by 77,000 to 769,000, the ONS said.

Elsewhere, the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance increased by 20,300 to 1.58 million in August, the highest level of claimants since January 2010.

The figures come as a report from think-tank IPPR warned that the UK faces a ``long and difficult'' path back to full employment, with up to two million jobs needed to be created to return to pre-recession levels.

The number of employed people fell between May and July by 69,000 to 29.17 million, driven by public sector job cuts, which was the biggest fall since the quarter to March 2010.