14th July 2010

Responding to unemployment figures released today, Yvette Cooper Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said:

“These figures show just why it is dangerous and callous to cut support for jobs and the economy.

“May's small fall in unemployment is welcome and reflects the extra support Labour put into the economy as it started to come out of recession.

“But there's still little sign of private sector job growth, with jobs in areas like construction still being heavily hit. And this is before the big spending cuts and the surge in young people leaving education this summer.

“Cutting 90,000 youth jobs and hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs while the private sector is still so fragile will condemn many people to a lifetime on the dole.

“In the 90s the Tories said unemployment was a price worth paying to cut inflation - now they clearly think it's a price worth paying to bring down the deficit.”