About 1.6 million people are claiming unemployment benefits. Economists called the data “truly horrible”. The West Midlands has become the first British region in the current recession to see its unemployment rate reach double figures: 10.3 per cent. There is also increasing evidence that workers are turning to temporary and part-time work, as well as putting up with minimal pay rises, to avoid the dole. Renewed efforts by the authorities to push workers to accept any kind of job rather than claim benefits, and increasingly stringent eligibility criteria, have accelerated this trend. Thus the number of the unemployed claiming jobseeker’s allowance rose by only 23,800 in June, much less than expected – down from rises of 30,800 in May and a record 136,600 in February. Young people are bearing the brunt of the pain. Gordon Brown made his political reputation in the 1980s and 1990s railing against the waste of human talent during the Conservatives’ rule, yet today one in five 18-to-24 year olds is jobless; 726,000 youngsters are looking for work. That toll will jump dramatically as more school leavers and graduates sign on this summer. The Federal Reserve this week projected that the national unemployment rate, currently at a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, will pass 10 percent by the end of the year. Most Fed policymakers said it could take “five or six years” for the economy and the labor market to get back on a path of long-term health.