Unemployment continues to rise
Updated on 22 April 2009
The number of people out of work in Britain has reached its highest figure since Labour came to power 12 years ago - and shows no sign of abating.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that unemployment topped 2.1 million in the three months to February, an increase of 177,000, the biggest quarterly rise since 1991.
And another set of figures from the ONS, for government borrowing, revealed just how constrained the chancellor will be in spending to get people back to work when he makes the budget announcement.
The final total for 2008-9 was £90bn, well above Treasury predictions, with more than £19bn borrowed in March alone, the highest monthly figure since records began in 1993.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy talks to the employment mininster Tony McNulty.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, discusses the unemployment figures.
