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.

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

  1. scandalousbill

    Jonnyprice,

    You ask:

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

    For this statement to be true you would have to demonstrate that consumer spending is a collective description of mass spur of the moment whims. This would perhaps apply to the purchase of a Mars bar, but not for larger ticket items such as an automobile, new cooker, etc. Consumer confidence, on the other can and does have a forward looking component, and can last longer than the events which have engendered its lowering.

    It has been argued that the stimuli provided by the previous government has run its course, and with a stagnant economy and lack of government supplied incentives to consumer spending, (the budget provided specific incentives for business costing, not new business i.e. sales promotion, such as the previous government in the case of the auto industry, consumer spending has, and will continue in the short term at least, to flounder.,

  2. Right To Work

    Osborne buries bad news as OBR predicts extra 130,000 unemployed: http://bit.ly/ic0dJs

  3. Anon E Mouse

    scandalousbill – This is a budget to win the next general election – not one designed to be popular in the short term.

    Leave aside the (relatively) poor poll leads (Blair jumped Labour’s popularity up by 21%) Labour have every possibility of being ahead by at least 20% within the year…

    And they will still lose the next election. Not just because the cuts aren’t believable. Not just because of having a leader no one will vote for but because irrespective of the governments popularity, Margret Thatcher who was extremely unpopular (not to Gordon Brown’s historic low level obviously) still won election after election.

    It is no good Labour keep saying how good the leader is and it is just an extension of their blind support for Brown.

    The public are not stupid scandalousbill and until Labour start admitting their mistakes they will remain unelectable – it’s time to ‘fess up and move on…

  4. Dominic Ellison

    Osborne buries bad news as OBR predicts extra 130,000 unemployed http://bit.ly/hvl5A9

  5. Deyan Marconny.

    RT @Right_To_Work: Osborne buries bad news as OBR predicts extra 130,000 unemployed: http://bit.ly/ic0dJs

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