There was further bad news for Osborne today as unemployment increased by 38,000 between April and June, putting the total of unemployed at 2.49 million or 7.9%. It’s just another example of Britain’s sluggish economic recovery under the Coalition government, with the last growth figures as low as 0.2%, as compared to growth in Q3 2010 of 1.1% under Labour’s recovery plan. Their plan isn’t working, the deficit is increasing not going down, a vindication of Labour’s message that you can’t cut the deficit without growth.

However, there are other serious things we can learn from today’s figures. Firstly, the unemployment rise disproportionately hit women, who made up 21,000 of the rise, putting female unemployment at the highest level since 1988. The cuts have long been identified as disproportionally hitting women, who make up the majority of the public sector workforce and are hit by benefits changes such as cutting child benefit, and these figures are a further example of the fundamental unfairness of the government’s economic strategy.

We can also see that youth unemployment has hit 20.2%, well over double the national rate. But at the same time the government cuts away opportunities for young people by scrapping EMA, increasing tuition fees, cutting funding to advisory services like Connexions and closing youth centres. We saw the state of some of today’s youth in the riots last week, and it is undoubtedly the case that some of the root causes of the riots were down the socio-economic situation of the rioters; living in a heavily consumerist society without the means to succeed in it, pushing them to crime and looting. For the first time in recent history, the opportunities of children are lower than those of their parents.

A third thing we can learn from today’s figures is that the unemployment is disproportionately concentrated in the poorest areas of the country. The highest unemployment rate by region is in the north-east, at 10%, while the lowest is in the south-east, at 5.8%. In the regions it stayed at 7.7% in Scotland, up to 8.4% in Wales and up to 7.3% in Northern Ireland. These are simultaneously the areas which are receiving the highest budget cuts to their councils (as high as 8.9%), which both contributes to the unemployment and cuts away services to those who at the same time have lost their jobs. Hence, those who are carrying the largest burden of the cuts and our poor economic recovery are those least able to do so; the least well-off in society who did nothing to cause the crisis which got us here.

A final thing these figures show is that part-time employment is at 1.26 million, the highest figure since records began in 1922. While the provision of party-time jobs is good insofar as it allows people who would otherwise not be working to work at least some of the time, part-time jobs do not adequately provide enough for a family or even an individual to live above the poverty line. This is especially true with 5% inflation and the fact that the sectors which offer most part-time employment, such as supermarkets, restaurants and other high-street shops, mostly do not pay a Living Wage.

All of this shows that it is in fact time for Plan B. Dave Prentis of Unison is correct to blame these figures on the disastrous economic policies of the government and the TUC has for months now been calling for a Plan B, a plan which emphasises growth and protecting those most vulnerable in society, rather than leaving them with the highest burden to protect the Tory donors in the City. Those in the Labour movement must fight against the Coalition’s cuts agenda until they change course or, even better, we kick this government out.

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