Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to this morning’s Labour Market Statistics, said:

“Today’s fall in overall unemployment is welcome. The Government should use this opportunity to tackle the unacceptably high levels of long-term unemployment and youth unemployment. More than 900,000 young people are unemployed and over 250,000 young people are long-term unemployed.

“These figures also show prices are still rising more than twice as fast as wages which means working people are over £1,600 a year worse off on average under this out-of-touch Government.

“Labour would act to tackle high levels of long-term unemployment with a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee to get people back to work and a Basic Skills Test to ensure everyone claiming jobseekers allowance has the basic English, Maths and IT skills they need to find a job. Our Compulsory Jobs Guarantee and our Basic Skills Test will help get people back to work and help us to earn our way out of the cost-of-living crisis.”