The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has released new data that shows a rise in the headline rate of unemployment coupled with a fall in employment.

The key findings of the released data include:

• The headline unemployment rate (based on the International Labour Organisation’s definition) stood at 8% between January and March 2010. According to the ONS, the rate is up 0.2 compared to the same figure over the previous three-month period.
• The International Labour Organisation unemployment level stood at 2.51 million over the period of January to March 2010, which is up 53,000 on the preceding quarter. The ONS states that this is “the highest figure since the three months to December 1994″.
• The employment rate in the three months leading to March 2010 is running at 72%, down from 72.3% in the previous quarter. According to the ONS, this means that the employment rate “has not been lower since the three months to December 1994″.
• The inactivity rate climbed to 21.5% in the three months leading up to March 2010, meaning that there is now what the ONS describes as “a record high” of 8.17 million working-age people inactive. This figure has risen by 88,000 since last quarter.

These figures from the ONS are the first piece of bad economic news for the new coalition government, and they clearly demonstrate the damage that the recession has done to the UK employment market.

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