Talk of green shoots in the UK economy were dealt a further blow by official data today, after it emerged the unemployment rate had climbed once more.
Oh, the media are loving a little more doom and gloom, aren't they?!
The number of unemployed people in the UK now stands at 2.44 million, up by 220,000 in the three months to June, and leaving it 750,000 higher than a year ago. The official unemployment rate rose by 0.7% quarter on quarter to 7.8%, and was up by 2.4% over the year.
This means that unemployment is now at it's highest level since 1995 - and expected to keep climbing.
Is this bad news a surprise after all the recent excitement about signs of green shoots?
In reality all the green shoots we’ve seen so far have been fall into two categories – either “we feel better” (and who wouldn’t after the turmoil of the last year) or “we’re running out of things” (companies ran down inventories over the last year being cautious with their cash, and now they need to restock).
Of course the reality of the economic recovery is that it will take time for employment numbers to improve because it always takes time for the broader economy to recover, no mater how much money you throw at it.
So it this the end of the recovery that has only just begun? We don’t think so – it’s just a sobering pause. We still believe that markets will rise again by the end of 2009 - so don’t panic!
If you have cash wasting time in a low interest account then this is a great time to be looking at reinvesting, if you have existing investments then just stick with them for further recovery….and if you are saving regularly, then keep doing what you’re doing!
