Unemployment - sorry, numbers of job seekers - is up for the seventh month in a row.
This is unlikely to mean a buyer's market for employers, however; the UK retains the lowest level of unemployment in Europe, maintains the Department of Trade and Industry.
After seven months, even allowing for an increase on the end of the school and college terms, you can't help but wonder whether this is a trend that's going to continue. It's heading for 1.5 million at the moment; fortysomethings like me will remember the 1980s when such figures were greeted with utter horror.
