The recession is certainly taking a hit on all facets of UK living from the amount that mortgage rates are currently offered to the price houses, which seem to be falling.

One of the other areas that seems to be hit the hardest is the unemployment rate which seems to be at its worst since 1995.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in the second quarter of this year, they have finally reported that some 2.43 million are unemployed which is an increase of approximately 220-thousand individuals.

According to the Office, the unemployment rate was 7.8% for the three months up into June of 2009. That’s a jump of around 0.7% from the previous quarter. Vacancy rates are not included with this count however that means that there are quite a few additional jobs which aren’t being filled.

The Office also says that average earnings, without bonuses, has fallen from the previous quarter. When you included the bonuses, however, the rate has increased.

Statistics also show that the employment rate for individuals of a working age is around 73% for the three months leading to June of 2009, which has been a decline of almost 1% from the previous quarter and 2% when you include the whole year.

The statistics also show that some 28.9-million individuals have applied for unemployment benefits over the quarter ending June 2009 but not all of them are on the roles as of yet. The annual growth rate, excluding bonuses, is the lowest since the Office has been collecting the information which began in 2001.

The next update for the Office for National Statistics to update their information will be when the quarter ends in late September 2009 and that should give a better direction of where unemployment is heading in the country even though we receive monthly figures in between.