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UK unemployment rates consistent with this definition are available from 1971. Considering this consistent time series, the highest unemployment rate recorded since 1971 was 11.9% in 1984 and the lowest was 3.4% in late 1973/early 1974. [9]
The second People's March for Jobs began in Glasgow on 23 April 1983. [5] On 5 June between 15,000 and 20,000 people attended a rally in Hyde Park, London, to mark the end of the march, addressed by Labour leader Michael Foot and the general secretary of the TUC, Len Murray.
The economic boom saw strong economic growth during the second half of the 1980s, sparking a sharp fall in unemployment, which was still in excess of 3 million at the end of 1986, but had fallen to 1.6 million (the lowest for some 10 years) by the end of 1989.
Coal mining jobs fell from a peak of 1,191,000 in 1920 to 695,000 in 1956, 247,000 in 1976, 44,000 in 1993 to 2,000 in 2015. [45] In the 1970s, manufacturing accounted for 25% of the economy. Total employment in manufacturing fell from 7.1 million in 1979 to 4.5 million in 1992 and only 2.7 million in 2016, when it accounted for 10% of the economy.
Britain's unemployment is now down to 1,610,000 – the lowest since 1978. However, it is a drop of just 2,000 on January's total and economists fear that a sharp rise in unemployment could soon begin as there are widespread fears of a recession. 20 March – Chancellor John Major delivers the first budget to be broadcast on television. [7] [8]
Thatcher's modernisation of the economy was far from trouble-free; her battle with inflation, which in 1980 had risen to 21.9%, resulted in a substantial increase in unemployment from 5.3% in 1979 to over 10.4% by the start of 1982, peaking at nearly 11.9% in 1984 – a level not seen in Britain since the Great Depression. [73]
12 November – Unemployment has fallen to 2,700,000 (just under 10% of the workforce), the lowest level of unemployment recorded in Britain for over six years. 17 November The Government announces that the Poll tax (community charge) to fund local government will be introduced in England and Wales in April 1990.
Proponents of the scheme believed that it would have a great impact on unemployment, and support entrepreneurship. Critics pointed to figures which suggested that one in six of the start-up businesses failed in the first year, and said that it had no significant impact on unemployment figures as most of the start-ups were sole-trading ...