By Tim Saunders

The UK needs to work harder at reducing the amount of people who are unemployed.

That is according to data from the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), which has found that UK unemployment stands at eight per cent.

Of the other 26 EU member states 13 have lower unemployment rates.

Dr John Philpott, the CIPD’s chief economic adviser, said: “The UK may draw comfort from having lower measured unemployment than the EU average but in truth we are no better than a mid-table performer in the EU jobless league. Taking ‘hidden joblessness’ into account makes the UK’s relative performance look less impressive still, and once again highlights the scale of the macroeconomic and employment policy challenge that awaits us in the next few years.”

Average unemployment in the EU (European Union) is 8.9 per cent with UK performance particularly poor in relation to male unemployment (9.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2009).

Only eight EU member states have higher male unemployment rates than the UK: Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Portugal and Slovakia.

However, the situation is exactly the reverse in relation to female unemployment with only eight EU member states having lower female unemployment rates than the UK (6.7 per cent in Q3 2009).

Helen Stacey – Head of Operations at Team Recruitment adds “we have certainly seen the local unemployment market change direction in a positive way, even in the last 8 weeks.  This can only be good news for our clients, our candidates who are looking for work and the wider local economy.  The increase has been across the board on all 3 disciplines that we deal with – Commercial, Industrial and Technical staff both temporary and permanent.  Alot of the roles we are taking on are starting as temp but will lead to permanent jobs which shows confidence from businesses that the increase in business will be longterm.  Anyone looking for work should give our Poole office a call on 01202 445700 or our Chichester office on 01243 816615″