Unemployment figures are worrying.

Unemployment figures are 'worrying', David Cameron's spokesman says


Figures showing that UK unemployment is soaring are "worrying", David
Cameron’s spokesman has admitted.








Unemployment rise: Women bear
the brunt of state pension age changes as fewer retire and separately, fewer opt
to be 'stay-at-home' mothers Photo: Martin Rickett/PA
Wire





By Peter Dominiczak, Political
Correspondent

4:56PM BST 17 Apr 2013


282 Comments




Unemployment increased by 70,000 between December and February to
2.56million, according to official figures.


It was the worst quarterly rise since Autumn 2011 and will pile pressure on
the Government over its current growth strategy.


The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the latest figures “underline the fact
that these are tough economic times”, but added that “any increase in
unemployment is worrying”.


The spokesman pointed out that unemployment is still around 71,000 lower that
it was at this time last year.


“Employment was broadly flat over the quarter and we’ve seen something like
about an 850,000 rise since the last election in 2010,” the spokesman added.
“And we’ve seen employment up 488,000 on the year.”



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The latest figures showed that rising unemployment has been driven by tens of
thousands of stay-at-home mothers forced to seek work.

There were 45,000 fewer stay-at-home mothers between December and February,
down to 2.06million.

Over the past few months, ministers have removed child benefit from wealthier
families with one breadwinner and restricted financial help with child care to
those mothers returning to work, yet repeatedly delayed a promise to bring in
tax breaks for married couples.

It has led to accusations that the Coalition has developed policies which
penalise families with stay-at-home mothers.

The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance last month fell by 7,000
to 1.53 million, the Office for National Statistics said.