Unemployment rising rapidly

UK unemployment rose by a record 281,000 to 2.38 million in the three months to May, the Office for National Statistics has said. (See BBC report here.) This is according to the ILO (survey) approach to measuring unemployment. In fact those claiming jobseekers' allowance did not increase in number last month very much, so there seems to be a discrepancy. It may simply be that many of the new unemployed are not bothering to apply for the allowance, which isn't very much (around £65 a week). Everyone expects unemployment to carry on rising until at least early next year as changes in unemployment usually lag output changes.