Unemployment in the UK is set to rise further and will not fall for another 18 months, warns the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in a study, which estimates that more than 100,000 people in the country will lose their jobs by September.

The IPPR think tank predicts that North-west and Eastern England, London, Yorkshire and Humberside will see the highest increases in joblessness, adding that West Midlands, Northern Ireland and South West will see a job recovery. Unemployment in the UK already stands at 2.67 million, the highest in 17 years, with a jobless rate of 8.4%.

With continuous jobs cut in public sector, 50,000 more men and around equal number of women are expected to become unemployed this year, according to the think tank. IPPR estimates that more than 41,000 of those losing their jobs will be under the age of 25, while around 7,000 people aged above 50 will become jobless.

“The personal tragedy of the slow economic recovery is the way unemployment will continue to rise over the next year, even once the economy begins to grow. This has been the longest recession and the slowest recovery that Britain has ever experienced”, said Kayte Lawton, IPPR senior research fellow.

Lawton fears that high unemployment will ultimately lead to a situation where joblessness will become an integral part of the UK economy. According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), during last three months, unemployment in Britain has surged by 28,000 to reach 2.67 million.

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