The news channel’s breaking update is bad news for the government.
GB News presenters Alex Armstrong and Ellie Costello delivered some breaking news (Image: GB News)
GB News halted its usual morning programming to bring viewers a breaking update. In a huge blow for Andy Burnham presenters Ellie Costello and Alex Armstrong announced that the unemployment rate remains static. Addressing viewers, Costello said: “Just want to bring you this breaking news we’ve had in the past few moments. The Office for National Statistics has revealed that the unemployment rate remains at 4.9%.”
Armstrong chimed in: “No movement there today, but either way, the government will want that number to be going down, not staying static. So it’s all to play for, still, isn’t it, to see whether the government can get that number down or whether it continues to climb, particularly as youth unemployment is becoming a sticky problem.” They then cut to contributor Fraser Myers for reaction to the figures. He agreed the figures were grim, saying: “I think the government will be disappointed that it’s not going down.
“Unemployment is a lagging indicator, so actually we’d want to see some growth preceding it. Usually, that’s how these things work, and we haven’t had very much growth.
“Youth unemployment is a major, major problem in this country. The number of people not in education or training or not in a job, is huge, and I’m afraid government policy is one of the key factors behind that.
“Changes to the minimum wage, equalising that with people who are who are older, are shutting young people out of jobs.
“Increases on national insurance [are] making it more expensive to employ people.
Andy Burnham will not be happy about the latest unemployment figures (Image: Getty)
“These are things that the government really needs to look at, as well as some of the other things that it is doing in promoting apprenticeships and things like that, which I think are helpful.
“But it’s a very, very poor job market at the moment for young people and even for graduates,” he acknowledged.
The latest released figures are for the three months from April to July. The Labour Government is under pressure to tackle the growing number of youth not in employment, education or training (NEETs).
The number of people claiming jobless benefits climbed by 27,8000 in August, compared with a revised decrease of 11.8,000 in July and the expected 8,300 gain over the period.