In the past 18 years of Tory rule, the recorded rate of unemployment has risen by half, even though there have been several changes to the method of measurement that make the total lower than it would otherwise have been. When the Conservatives came to office in 1979, at the peak of an economic cycle, 1.3m Britons were on the jobless register. What has not been falling is the rate of long-term unemployment. The proportion of the unemployed who have been out of work for a year or more has averaged around one-third since at least the early 1980s. Some will have given up the search for work and thus do not appear in the records.
Most European countries have a similar core of long-term unemployed.
Britain's overall unemployment figures mask an undulating landscape of hills and valleys. The largest regional jobless rates have traditionally been found mainly in Ulster, the north of England, Scotland and Wales. But now the south-east is doing relatively better again. The shift in employment from manufacturing to services , which began early this century, has continued apace. The largest categories in this group of jobs are retailing, property, health care and social work.