Labour’s economic record has been torn apart on GB News after unemployment figures hit their highest level in five years.
Speaking with GB News’ Martin Daubney, political commentator Jamie Jenkins said negative economic figures are “coming thick and fast” in the wake of Rachel Reeves’ tax-hiking Budget.
“That four months of negative stagnant growth that we’ve seen… Literally the jobs market is plummeting,” he told the People’s Channel.
Over the part quarter, unemployment shot up to 5.1 per cent in the three months to October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed.
About 88,000 fewer people were on payroll, a drop which was particularly felt in the retail industry.
He continued: “We’re seeing a slump on the high street in terms of consumer spending money and further falls in hospitality.
“The figures are quite damning. It’s not looking positive.”
The latest figures have shown unemployment figures to be at their highest for the past five years.
‘It’s not looking positive,’ the commentator admitted
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Since Labour won the election, 187,000 fewer people were on payroll with Mr Jenkins further commenting that such figures must be “waking people up and the alarm bells are ringing”.
“The Government really needs to go on a different course because I don’t see where this is going to turn otherwise,” he added.
At which point, Martin, appearing astounded, commented: “What’s particularly alarming from my point of view is that young people seem to be leading the charge here towards benefits dependency.
“Over a million now not in work or full time education. They’re the most impacted today.
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“If you hike minimum wages for young people, if you make it more expensive to hire people via national insurance, it’s going to impact young people the hardest. Is that a sense of inevitability about today’s data?”
Mr Jenkins concurred, agreeing that it was “not rocket science” a disproportionate minimum wage increase led to a loss of incentive for the “first run on the ladder”.
He explained: “For some of these people, that was the big problem that we had there.
“And the big challenge as well, that when we’re looking at the figures is, if you think back to last week, £1.5billion Government investment was put in to try and get more job apprenticeships.
“So the Government’s creating a problem and then it’s trying to fix it with taxpayers’ money on the other side.”
Reacting to the figures, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Pat McFadden said they simply “underline the scale of the challenge we’ve inherited”.
He said: “There are over 350,000 more people in work this year and the rate of inactivity is at its joint lowest in over five years, but today’s figures underline the scale of the challenge we’ve inherited.
“That is why we are investing £1.5billion to deliver 50,000 apprenticeships and 350,000 new workplace opportunities for young people – giving them real experience and a foot in the door.
!To go further and tackle the deep-rooted issues of our labour market, Alan Milburn is also leading an investigation into the whole issue of young people inactivity and work.”