Yesterday's unemployment figures

There is no doubt about it. The unemployment figures continue to be terrible news, not just for governments across the UK, but for the millions of people wanting work but unable to get it.

In terms of addressing poverty, getting more people into work was an essential requirement before the recession. The scale of the task is of course infinitely larger now. Figures for the UK in JRF's annual Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion report (due out 1 December) show that there are six million underemployed people. This consists of the unemployed, those on other benefits who say they want to work and part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs. The implication is that we need *millions* more jobs in the economy to meet demand.

In addition to more jobs, the other two essential foundations of any anti-poverty strategy must be:

• ensuring benefits for children, adults (both in and out of work) and pensioners keep pace with average earnings; and
• raising incomes of those already in work.

The latter means more hours, more workers in families, better pay levels, more progression and higher job security.

The Chancellor needs to address these underlying drivers of poverty in his Autumn Statement in a few weeks. It would be good to see the link between benefits and living costs maintained – or a commitment made to peg benefits to earnings for the longer term, not expediently for the shorter term.

Finally, the plans for growth must be made a central part of strategies on poverty and social mobility – if we don't get the economy right, then everything else risks falling apart.