Unemployment rises unexpectedly

UK unemployment has risen back over the 2.5 million mark, fanning fears that Britain is suffering a ‘jobless recovery’.

The number of people out of work in Britain rose by 35,000 in the three months to October, pushing the unemployment total up to 2,502,000. This raised the UK’s unemployment rate to 7.9% (from 7.8% in the previous quarter), the highest rate in six months. City economists had expected a drop of 15,000 in the number of people out of work, which would have lowered the unemployment rate to 7.7%.

The rise was mainly due to a drop in public-sector employment, where 33,000 jobs were lost over the period. Regionally, the north-east saw the biggest fall in public-sector jobs, followed by the south-west and east of England.

Chris Grayling, the employment minister, said the figures showed the importance of keeping the UK economy growing.

“It’s essential to create a stable environment where businesses can flourish and create jobs – with those on benefits at the front of the queue to take them up”, Grayling said.

The government has predicted 330,000 jobs will be lost in the public sector over the next four years, but insists that this will be compensated by a rise in private-sector jobs. Today’s data, though, showed that private-sector employment has flat-lined, raising concerns for ministers.

David Birne, an insolvency practitioner at HW Fisher chartered accountants, warned that many companies were facing a ‘bleak’ time, making it impossible for them to increase their workforce. “Anyone who thinks the private sector can take up the slack from the public sector is out of touch with what’s happening on the ground”, Birne said.

During prime minister’s questions today, David Cameron said he was ‘concerned’ by the rise in joblessness, but pledged that the government’s Work Programme would help people recover from the ‘tragedy’ of unemployment. “We must do everything we can to help people into a job”, he said.

But Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, warned that Cameron’s economic policies risked ‘growth-choking mass unemployment’.

“Today’s figures suggest public-sector unemployment will be far higher than the government predicts, while the private-sector jobs that are supposed to compensate for these losses are failing to materialise. Public servants are fearful about their futures when the cuts really start to hit home”, Barber said. (Guardian)

Exercise 9 . Make a summary of the news issue below and translate it into Ukrainian.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook named Time’s person of 2010

Time magazine has picked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as its annual Person of the Year, the figure it believes had the most influence on events in 2010.

The 26-year-old billionaire was the subject of a 2010 film, The Social Network, charting Facebook’s rise. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange earlier won a Time readers’ poll on 2010’s most influential person.

The annual feature has been a fixture since the 1920s, with the winner appearing on the front cover of Time. Time managing editor Richard Stengel said Mr. Zuckerberg’s social networking service was “transforming the way we live our lives every day”.

Mr. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook while a student at Harvard University in 2004. It now has more than 500 million users worldwide and employs more than 1,700 people.

In a statement, Mr. Zuckerberg said the Time award was “a real honour and recognition of how our little team is building something that hundreds of millions of people want to use to make the world more open and connected. I’m happy to be a part of that”.

Mr. Zuckerberg, estimated to be worth $6.9bn (£4.4bn), is one of the richest people in the US, and earlier this month he became one of the latest billionaires to pledge to give away the majority of his wealth.

He is one of 17 new people to support a group, founded by Bill Gates and his wife along with Warren Buffett, which encourages America’s wealthiest to publicly promise to donate to charity.

The Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) title is awarded by the magazine’s editors to the figure deemed to have had the most influence on world events that year – not necessarily in a positive way.

Hitler, Stalin and the Ayatollah Khomeini have all won in the past.

In recent years, the title has gone to less controversial figures. In 2009 US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke won it, while US President Barack Obama won it the year before.

A Time poll showed readers favoured naming WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this year but the magazine’s editors and correspondents chose Zuckerberg.

The conservative Tea Party political movement was Time’s second choice, followed by Assange, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the 33 trapped Chilean miners. (BBC)

Exercise 10 . Make a summary of the news issue below and translate it into Ukrainian.

Nearly $1 billion sought for pet transport projects

Members of Congress are seeking nearly $1 billion in funding for pet transportation projects in a massive government spending bill, maintaining a tradition of bringing home ‘pork’ for road and transit.

A Reuters analysis of transport-related requests posted by the Senate Appropriations Committee found members of the House of Representatives and Senate have asked for more than $900 million for transportation in more than 990 requests, called ‘earmarks’.

In all, there were an estimated 6,600 individual spending requests totaling more than $8 billion in the catch-all fiscal 2011 budget bill unveiled by the Senate on Tuesday. Steve Ellis of the advocacy group Taxpayers for Common Sense said transportation traditionally attracts heavy earmarking because of the political benefits associated with its economic stimulus and job creation.

“Instead of parochial projects for lawmakers, we should have a formula for allocating dollars”, Ellis said, echoing the concerns of interest groups and lawmakers, especially conservative Republicans, who say earmarks are wasteful.

Patty Murray of Washington state, the chairman of the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee, spearheaded the largest single request in Tuesday’s spending bill, $29 million for an Interstate bridge crossing the Columbia River.

Murray and other lawmakers from Washington state are requesting $85 million, an amount she said would create jobs, help small business and “boost our economy”.

Christopher Bond of Missouri, the top-ranking Republican on Murray’s subcommittee who is retiring in January, sought $38 million in total. Barbara Boxer of California, chairman of the Public Works Committee, asked for $11 million, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada sought $19 million. Some requests from the senators included other lawmakers, and were for various road, rail, transit and bridge projects.

Historically, military-related, energy and water, and transportation projects have topped the list for earmarks.

One of the most notorious earmarks in recent years involved $200 million in 2005 for an Alaska project dubbed by critics as the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’. The money was never spent and the project was canceled. Compared to most methods of sending transportation dollars to states, earmarks do not have formulas or allocations designed to ensure accountability. There are no assurances a project will be built or jobs created.

Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America, a construction industry trade group, said earmarks frequently cover less than a project’s total cost, and many states cannot afford to pay the balance.

A Transportation Department analysis in 2007 showed few earmarks are vetted by relevant agencies or states. “There are too many projects chasing too little money”, said Turmail, a former senior Transportation Department official during the George W. Bush administration. (Reuters)