16/09/2009

Initial Research Ideas

After receiving the brief yesterday, it seems I have a lot of research ahead of me for the next 15 weeks.
My first task is to roughly plan out where to start. I know that eventually I want to continue down the path of fashion marketing, and would ideally want to create a concept for a high fashion luxury brand, but at this point I don't want to limit myself or limit potential ideas.

Below is some evidence of the current front page news article from bbcnews.co.uk. However, I don't want to limit my information to just the UK.

Page last updated at 10:24 GMT, Wednesday, 16 September 2009 11:24 UK

UK unemployment climbs to 2.47m

The number of people out of work in the UK has risen to its highest level in 14 years, official figures have shown.

Unemployment increased by 210,000 to 2.47m in the three months to July, taking the jobless rate to 7.9%, the Office for National Statistics said.

Claims for unemployment benefit in August grew by 24,400 from July to 1.61m, the highest since May 1997.

There have been signs the UK economy is beginning to pick up, but jobless data tends to lag behind other measures.

Average earnings, including bonuses, increased by 1.7% in the three months to July, down from the previous month.

The number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work rose from 928,000 to 947,000 - edging closer to the landmark of one million and adding to fears of a new "lost generation" of young people.

The jobless rate among this age group is at 19.7% - the highest since records began - meaning almost one in five is looking for work.

'Extended period'

The level of unemployment is now at its highest since May 1995 and employment minister Jim Knight said the government was doing all it could to get people back into work.

"We've got to make sure that as we get back into growth, we grow jobs as well. That's why we need an active government committed to tackling work, to tackling joblessness," he said

And Mr Knight added that an OECD Employment Outlook - which praised some UK government initiatives to help the unemployed - suggested the UK had lower than average rates of unemployment than the G7 and the EU.

"However, we know things will still be tough for some time and unemployment is likely to keep increasing, even once the economy starts growing again - that's why it's critical that we continue investing in people's future and don't just abandon them."

Conservative leader David Cameron said that unemployment approaching 2.5 million was "extremely depressing".

"What we need to do is make sure our welfare system is working in every way it can, to help people get jobs, to help people get back into work, to give them the training that they need," he said.

Growth drag

Earlier this week, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, said there were signs that the UK economy was growing again.

But he added that the "strength and sustainability" of the recovery were still "highly uncertain", saying the state of the banking system, levels of debt, and the global economy were all drags on growth.

Unemployment is still likely to reach three million in 2010, and could go higher, said economist Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight.

"Unemployment is a lagging indicator and the sharp overall economic contraction suffered between the second quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009 will continue to weigh down on the labour market for an extended period," he said.

Budget deficit

Government spending to stimulate the economy boosted employment in the public sector by 13,000 in the three months to June, the figures showed.

This contrasted with a 230,000 fall in private sector workers over the same period, the ONS said.

However there are fears that future cuts in spending aimed at tackling the huge budget deficit will lead to job losses in the public sector.

"More workers, particularly young workers, are paying a devastating price for the bankers' recession and there is some way to go before unemployment stops rising," said Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union.

No comments:

Post a Comment