British unemployment rises to 5.8 percent

London -- Unemployment in Britain rose sharply in the third quarter, reaching 5.8 percent, the Office of National Statistics said Wednesday.

The jobless figure jumped 0.4 percent in the quarter. Unemployment is up 0.5 percent in the U.K. this year, the government said.

In the quarter, the unemployment picture sharply deteriorated. Through the year, 182,000 workers joined the ranks of the unemployed, 140,000 of them in the third quarter, the government said.

The number of unemployed, at 1.82 million, is higher than it has been since the fourth quarter of 1997, when 1.87 million Britons were unemployed.

With a gain of 36,000 in the month, unemployment benefits claims in October, are higher then they have been since March 2001. The month's total claims stood at 980,900. In March 2001, 990,900 claims were filed.

Economists expect "much worse is to come," Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics told The Times of London.

"We expect unemployment to peak in 2010 at around 3.3 million," she said.

"These figures, which take unemployment to an 11-year high will sadly be followed by further bad news in the coming months," said John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.