On average four unemployed people are applying for every job vacancy in the UK, say a public service union.
A recent investigation by UNISON found that almost 4 people were chasing every single job in England, Scotland and Wales with 3.9 people applying for each job in Bournemouth.
Secretary of UNISON Bournemouth Branch David Higgins said: “The major reason for this unemployment crisis is the council’s policy to reduce money they spend on public services.
“The council is cutting the budgets of police, health and many other public services and they can’t actually save money because they have to spend more on solving the unemployment problem.”
Up to 9 job-seekers are competing for the same positions, said a UNISON representative.
“The actual number would be higher since this survey only included the ones who registered as job-seekers and receive job-seeker’s allowance,” Mr Higgins added.
Chris Binns, 23, from Bournemouth said: “I’ve applied for a lot of different jobs since I’ve been unemployed but not found anything, I know a lot of other people are in a similar situation at the moment.”
“You find that a lot of places don’t even get back to you to tell you ‘no’, I guess that’s because they have a lot of applications to deal with,” said Mr Binns.
According to the Bournemouth council’s lastest monthly unemployment bulletin, the local unemployment rate in January reached 3.1, its highest in 9 months.
“It is a worry that in Bournemouth so many people are out of a job, it is not good for the town as well as the national economy,” said Mr Higgins
Main image credit: Wikimedia Commons
