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

“While this fall in overall unemployment is welcome, today’s figures show nearly 900,000 young people are unemployed and long-term youth unemployment has soared under David Cameron. The government should introduce Labour’s Compulsory Jobs Guarantee to get young people into work. 

“At long last earnings are finally rising faster than CPI inflation when bonuses are included, but after four years when prices have risen faster than wages there is a huge amount of lost ground to catch up. Working people are now over £1600 a year worse off than when David Cameron came to office, most people are not feeling any recovery and the link between the wealth of the nation and family finances remains broken.

‘It’s deeply complacent and out of touch for the Tories to try and claim this deep-seated cost-of-living crisis has suddenly been solved. Only Labour has a clear plan to earn our way to higher living standards for all, not just a few at the top.“

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