The unemployment rate rose during the first three calendar quarters of the current recession by about the same extent as during the equivalent period in the recession of 1990s and by just a little more than in the recession of the early 1990s.

Since Q3 2008, the unemployment rate rose by 1.3 percentage points, to reach 7.1%, a similar increase to the 1980s recession. By comparison, the jobless rate rose by 0.9 percentage points in the first three quarters of the early 1990s recession, to reach 8%.

Since the population has been growing over the last three decades, however, the rise in the number of people unemployed has been greater in this recession.

From the start of Q4 2008 to the end of Q2 2009, unemployment levels increased by 530,000, compared with rises of 434,000 and 304,000 during the equivalent periods in the 1980s and 1990s downturns.

As previously, unemployment levels were quick to react to the economic slowdown, rising almost immediately GDP began to fall. But the earlier experiences show that unemployment did not fall immediately after the economy returned to positive growth.

The unemployment figure had not returned to the pre-1980s recession level before the 1990s recession started and it was six years for the figure to climb back to its pre-1990s recession level.

In regional terms, the West Midlands has been hardest hit by the recession, with high levels of redundancies combined with high unemployment and large falls in vacancies.

The inactivity rate has also increased for the West Midlands suggesting that individuals are withdrawing for the labour market.

Men have been more affected than women by the current recession. The employment rate for men was 1.7 percentage points lower in the three months to March 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier, while the female employment rate was 0.8 percentage points lower on the year. This could be explained by the fact that there is a greater tendency for men to work in the private sector.

Young people have experienced the largest percentage point increase in unemployment compared with other age groups. In the year to March 2009, unemployment rates for 18-24 year olds increased by just under four percentage points, to 16.1%.

The number of workless households increased by 100,000 between the three months to December 2007 and the same period in 2008. Couple households without dependent children had the biggest increase over the year, up by 5.8%.