U.K. Unemployment Little Changed

The U.K. Office for National Statistics reported that unemployment in the three months that ended in July was 8.1%. The is up from 8.0% for the three months that ended in June. The actual change was tiny. The number of unemployed people in fact fell 7,000, based on the two comparisons.

It is a wonder the numbers were not worse. The United Kingdom probably has entered a second recession in five years, which has increased calls for stimulus spending. In the meantime, Prime Minister David Cameron has been caught between his own promise to reduce deficits - mostly through austerity - and a growing rage about the effects of these cost cuts on the nation's prosperity.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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