The Office of National Statistics has announced today that the number of people unemployed in the UK has risen by its smallest amount since May 2008.
Before we pop the champagne corks and explode the party poppers, we should remember that the rise was still 30,000 bringing the total number of those out of work to 2.46 million.
Even more sobering is the fact that youth unemployment which covers those between 16 and 24-years-old rose by 15,000 to a total of 943,000.
When you think about it, though, is it really surprising? We have become a country that no longer produces anything of substance. Our manufacturing industries have gone, along with our fisheries. Once, we were the envy of the world in technological advance but we now create very little that is innovative or original.
We have become just a service nation that trades in items that do not exist in a realistic form and where the profits and risk taking are high.
University graduates have spent years studying for qualifications, while accumulating huge debts, to find they have returned to a world of few jobs worthy of their abilities.
There are no longer apprenticeships for those to whom academic achievement was beyond their ability; we have few trades left where skills need to be passed on and taught over time. Many of the jobs requiring such skills are now filled by foreign workers prepared to accept lower daily rates and longer hours.
Of course, we all have to shoulder some personal responsibility for allowing such things to happen. The unions became too strong and past governments were too weak. Our products became too expensive and uncompetitive.
The fact remains, though, that when we gave away our industrial ability we also gave away the sense of hope and value of thousand upon thousands of our young people who are never going to be, or want to be bankers!
For many of them, we only offer the armed forces and war in foreign lands!
