Osborne buries bad news as OBR predicts extra 130,000 unemployed

Green Politics

Ed Miliband's response to the Budget focused on the OBR's downgrading of growth figures. Osborne failed to mention that an additional 130,000 people will be unemployed in 2012.

Ed Miliband’s response to the Budget focused heavily on the OBR’s downgrading of the growth figures from 2.6% last June to 1.7% in the Budget. But Osborne failed to mention a further piece of bad news: the OBR anticipates an additional 130,000 people will be unemployed in 2012.

Table C2 of the June Budget estimated that the claimant count would be 1.5 million in 2011, 1.4 million in 2012, and 1.3 million in 2013. The revised figures in Table C1 of today’s Budget – reproduced below – estimate that the claimant count will be up 40,000 in 2011, up 130,000 in 2012, and up 130,000 in 2013.

Meanwhile, the ILO measure of unemployment jumps 0.2% in 2011, 0.5% in 2012, and 0.6% in 2013.

So much for a Budget for jobs and growth.

No related posts.

98 Responses to “Osborne buries bad news as OBR predicts extra 130,000 unemployed”

  1. This was not a Budget for Growth, this was a half-baked unapolgetic consolation. | Some Blog

    […] in the media are those concerning employment. As Leftfootforward so brilliantly uncovered in this piece earlier today – “Osborne failed to mention a further piece of bad news: the OBR anticipates […]

  2. Cab Davidson

    RT @FalseEcon: RT @leftfootfwd Osborne buries bad news as OBR predicts extra 130k unemployed http://bit.ly/efWFuX reports @wdjstraw #fal …

  3. Mike Ranscombe

    RT @leftfootfwd: Osborne buries bad news as OBR predicts extra 130,000 unemployed http://bit.ly/efWFuX reports @wdjstraw

  4. jonnyprice

    A few points:

    1. Budget decisions can take a year to have any impact on growth figures. Today’s figures are due to the decisions made by the previous government.

    2. Surely VAT has had to rise to 20 per cent to pay back what was lost when it was cut to 15 per cent?

    3. How can Labour blame the cuts for stalling growth when nothing has been cut yet?

  5. Mr. Sensible

    Tonight, my local Tory MP said this in her email newsletter:
    “I have avoided the party political spiel as to the state of the country’s finances…”

    Now we know why…

Comments are closed.