Three million unemployed in UK

Unemployment in UK is approaching three million.

According to the Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King, the country is facing the worst financial crisis since the inter-war slump.

Youth unemployment is running at 20 per cent, roughly the European average, with more than 1 million 16-to 24-year olds without a job. Some of these youngsters have never had the chance to work.

Figures also include more than 58 million over-fifties who have been out of work for more than 12 months. Those experienced people will hardly find a work again. Many of them will have retired earlier than they planned and on a lower retirement income than they were supposed to get.

Mr King also declared that prospects for the British economy have worsened as the risk of a double-dip recession had grown and pinned blame on crisis in the eurozone.

Meanwhile, St Paul’s Institute, a church group that seeks to engage banks with moral questions, published a report based on a poll of 515 City workers according to which the majority of employees have admitted that they are overpaid. Two-thirds of people working in the City cannot even say when the last two recessions took place.