Britain's unemployed total has rocketed to a 17 year-high, official data showed Wednesday, denting economic recovery prospects and government hopes that the private sector can offset huge cuts in state jobs. Britain's jobless total jumped to 2.57 million people in the three months to August, the highest amount since 1994, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
The country's unemployment rate shot up to 8.1 percent during the quarter, the highest level for 15 years and youth unemployment hit a record high of 991,000, the ONS added. Prime Minister David Cameron described the data as "very disappointing." Britain escaped from a deep recession in the third quarter of 2009 but its recovery has been severely constrained by collapsing consumer confidence, painful state austerity cuts and the eurozone debt crisis.
Wednesday's data comes less than a week after the Bank of England injected £75 billion (86 billion euros, $115 billion) of new money into Britain's stalled economy in a bid to boost growth. The ONS said in a statement on Wednesday: "The unemployment rate for the three months to August 2011 was 8.1 percent of the economically active population. The last time the unemployment rate was higher was in the three months to July 1996. "The total number of unemployed people increased by 114,000 over the quarter to reach 2.57 million. The number of unemployed people has not been higher since the three months to October 1994," it added.