Small Mod Cons issue 3 | Oct 2011

The current issue of Small Mod Cons, published Oct 2011, is now available for download. Get it here. All feedback welcome. Issue 4 due out Dec 2011.

Small Mod Cons issue 2 | May 2011

Issue 2 of our economics/current affairs journal/zine is now available online. First published May 2011. Download the PDF here.

Small Mod Cons issue 1 | Feb 2011

If you want to know what the 'zines written before this blog came into being contain, now you can. We've made them all available as downloadable PDFs over at issuu. Get them all here. The first issue, in which we happened to predict impending riots in the UK, was published in February 2011 .

UK unemployment | a visual guide

Hello and welcome to Small Mod Cons.  SMC started off a quarterly photocopied 'zine looking at economic trends. We've now progressed to the web-o-sphere with this blog where we aim to do more of the same on a regular basis. For this first post we are taking a look, literally, at the current UK unemployment situation, with some nice graphs to break it down visually.

The UK unemployment rate currently stands at 8.1%, the highest level for over 15 years. You can see how most of the increase happened in 2009 but recently we have taken another upturn, suggesting a rising trend in unemployment. This graph shows that we stand somewhere in the middle of our European neighbours but we could soon be heading into a similar zone to that of the more troubled EU members.

The graph below shows how a slide in job vacancies has coincided with rising unemployment (a sure sign of a shrinking economy), leading to a ratio of 5.6 unemployed people for every job vacancy.

 Here's a visual representation of the age distribution of the unemployed section of the UK population.

This chart shows the differing unemployment rates between 16-24 yr olds and the general population. The problem is 2.6 times as acute for young people. It seems the job market is in a similar situation to the housing market, with a lack of opportunity for first time entrants.

 

All data is from the Office of National Statistics Oct 2011 statistical bulletin. If there are other aspects of the UK unemployment situation you would like to see visually represented, please contact us, as we do requests!