British unemployment rose in October for the first time for a year as layoffs by firms grappling with the economic slowdown took their toll, putting a decade-long trend of rising employment at risk, figures showed today.
The Office for National Statistics said that 4,300 people signed on to the benefits register in October - the first increase since October 2000.
That gave an unemployment rate of 3.2 per cent, unchanged from a revised figure for September.
With the exception of a couple of blips, the most recent in October 2000, unemployment has been falling steadily since 1992, to a 26-year low point.
But with British firms, especially airlines, wielding the axe in response to the weaker economic outlook in the wake of the September 11 terrorist suicide attacks on the United States, that trend looks certain to change, economist said.
"It's the beginning of job cuts, yes," said HSBC economist David Bloom.
"I wouldn't describe them as big job cuts - yet," he told AFP. "It's the start of a new trend - that's the worrying thing."
Manufacturers, in the grips of recession, have been hit particularly hard.
They have been given some breathing space by seven British interest rate cuts this year, but the Bank of England's latest quarterly inflation report published today suggested to some economists that more rate cuts might not be forthcoming.
"Growth over the two years is broadly the same as in the August report, as the effects of the cuts in official interest rates offset the consequences of deteriorating global conditions," the central bank said.
Bank of England deputy governor Mervyn King told reporters that the risk of recession in Britain "remains low" and that if he had to put a number on that danger, it would be "in the order of one in 10".
AFP