Record Number Of Women Claiming Unempoyment Benefit – Fawcett

The Fawcett Society has today (16th February 2011) responded to the latest labour market statistics from the Office of National Statistics. Figures out today show that, in the last year, the number of women claiming JSA has risen by 12%. The number of women aged 25-49 on JSA is now at its highest since comparable records began (in 1997). (1)

Anna Bird, Acting Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, said:

“Our worst fears are being realised. Government cuts are having a disproportionate impact on women across the UK, with a record number forced to claim unemployment benefit.

“Taking jobs away from anyone, woman or man, is devastating for that person and their family. The scale of job losses across the female workforce undermines women’s overall financial security, threatens our independence and widens the gap in equality between women and men.

“Slashing at the public sector workforce inevitably hits women hardest – 65 per cent of public sector workers are women, and they are concentrated in the low paid, low grade and insecure work most under threat.

“The figures out today are the tip of the iceberg as cuts are only just beginning to bite. The rising numbers of women facing unemployment are also coping with capped or frozen benefits and the rolling back of many public services that they access more frequently and more intensively than men. By themselves, these changes will blight numerous lives, taken together they add up to a disastrous blow for women’s equality.

“Women face a triple jeopardy of cuts to jobs, benefits and services that have over recent years helped to narrow the gender gap. In the run up to the next budget, we urge the Chancellor and Coalition Government to address the disproportionate impact of their economic policy so that hard-fought gains in women’s employment and economic rights are not squandered.”

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Posted 16 February, 2011 (19:39) | Notices |