With the number of retail commercial properties going into administration on the increase, this has resulted in more and more people being made redundant. MOVEHUT looks into the effects this has had on UK unemployment levels.
The Office for National Statistics reported that 164,000 people were made redundant between September and November 2011, which was an increase of 9.3 per cent from the previous three months (June to August 2011). The redundancy rate is at its highest level since 2009, although there was a slight dip at the start of 2011, when the level dropped to 123,000.
However, the redundancy rate cannot be blamed entirely on commercial property closures. But with large companies, with a large number of commercial properties such as, Allied Carpets, Barratts, Peacocks and T J Hughes, going into administration, this has surely contributed towards the increase of the redundancy rate. Although some of these companies were saved by buy-outs, which in turn saved some of their commercial properties, a large majority of them had to be closed, resulting in redundancies.
The increasing level of redundancies has had a major impact on unemployment levels, which stood at 2.6 million people in November 2011. This rate was at the highest level seen, since November 1995.
Nevertheless, there are 29.1 million people in employment, with 4.1 million of those self-employed. But full-time employment levels fell, as people struggled to find work. 1.3 million people decided to accept part-time work, instead or waiting for a full-time job, just so they have a regular income. This figure is the highest seen, since records even began, in 1992.
However, according to the report, there were roughly 463,000 jobs available in December 2011, which would still leave over two million people unemployed. So is there really any hope for the unemployed? Or as more and more businesses struggle to survive, is the redundancy rate set to increase even more?
