2½ million unemployed across the UK is maybe too big for many of us to get our heads round, so let’s zoom in closer. I read this morning about unemployment in Barking, east London.

3.6% in August 2008 to 5.8% in August 2009 might not seem a lot at first glance yet it represents an increase over the last twelve months of 5,966 people out of work in one London borough alone.

According to a report on BBC News they include an estate agent who this January had to close the business he’d run for eight years – he effectively had to make his own role redundant! He says:

“It’s changed over the course of the year, because before you would get two or three people ready to take on a role, but now that’s more like 10 or 20.”

He, the truck driver, the student, the sound assistant and the building supervisor, ranging in age from 19 to 60, all want to work. The 39 year old forklift truck driver tells the tale we’ve heard many times from people who’ve been made redundant:

“You apply for jobs but none of them get back to you. I don’t know if it’s the recession but I am finding it a lot harder”

They’re not being picky or choosy. They each go regularly to the Job Centre, approach agencies direct and visit the library to search the local papers and the Internet for work. The 20 year old sound assistant has almost sussed it:

“I’ll take anything until I can find another sound job. When I’m working on a job I’m making contacts with other people in the industry, so I’ll contact the people I’ve met.”

Now, if he would just take this one step further, like the guy referred to here, he’d multiply his chances of getting a job that nobody else knows exists!