As many as one million further job cuts are likely to be made across the UK before unemployment reaches its peak.
That is according to top economist and member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) David Blanchflower, who has expressed his belief that the current unemployment situation is only likely to get worse until the end of 2009.
Speaking to the BBC's Newsnight before he retires from the MPC, the expert explained: "My view is we're going to see an average of 100,000 a month, at least for the end of the year, so unemployment is certainly going to rise by a significant amount, perhaps by another million, perhaps by more."
He added that the state of the British labour market is also likely to mean that the UK will be home to a "lost generation" of young people, with a significant proportion of graduates due to be out of work for the next couple of years at least.
These comments come after chancellor Alistair Darling acknowledged that unemployment across the UK will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, even if the economy picks up later this year.
