Unemployment is set to rise once again, according to the centre for economics and business research (CEBR).

The CEBR anticipates that despite strong Q4 growth in GDP, growth is likely to be weaker in the first quarter of 2011, with the claimant count rising.

The CEBR analysis also shows that while GDP fell by 4.7% in 2009, unemployment did not rise as significantly as expected due to the private sector ensuring that pay and hours took the strain rather more than job numbers compared with previous recessions.

African and Asian nationals have suffered in particular in the recession. Figures reveal that employment among Indian nationals in the UK is down 13.8%, Africans (excluding South Africa) 16.2%, and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis 19.3%.

And in the 16-24-year-old age group, employment has fallen by 340,000 but the increase in the claimant count has been only 127,000 with the rest staying in education – a rise in 218,000 in the number claiming to be ‘students’.