The majority of people in Great Britain expect unemployment to rise or stay the same in the next few months according to poll commissioned by the Sun newspaper. 39% believe unemployment will rise, very closely followed by the 38% who believe unemployment will stay stagnant. Only one in five (20%) expect unemployment to fall.
Those living in the Midlands and Wales are least confident in the economy with only 19% expecting the economy to grow, far less than Scottish residents who at 27% are five percentage points more confident in the economy’s potential for growth than the national average of 22%.
There were also large discrepancies between male and female opinions on the future of the economy. Expectations about the economy’s potential for growth differ by as much as 12 percentage points between genders, with 28% of men and only 16% of women agreeing that the economy would grow over the next few months. 58% of women think that the economy will stay the same compared to 48% of men.
It seems that those living in London are the most pessimistic about the state of the economy. In the most expensive city in the country, 46% expect unemployment to rise and 27% expect the economy to return to recession in the next few months. Both of these figures are far above the national averages of 39% and 22% respectively. It seems that despite continuing media coverage of supposed ‘green shoots’ in the economy, the British are still feeling the pinch when it comes to unemployment, and don’t expect much of an improvement any time soon.
For survey details and full results, please click here
