What has my happiness got to do with what was being reported in the BBC news article? I was simply relaying information from that news source.

Right.

Do what I do, totally ignore, its not worth it.

To ignore is ignorance.

I've no dog in this fight but I do have to pick on this one.

Ignorance is the lack of knowledge or information. To ignore may lead to ignorance but it does not equal ignorance.

Now as you were. By the way, my dad can beat up your dads

Considering I was simply quoting statistics from a news article in regards to the topic of what the poster had posted, then ignoring my post (and therefore those stats) as the poster said he did is indeed lacking information or knowledge in this context.

Apparently to him, such information is not worth it.

Therefore ignoring the post lead to ignorance of the contents of the artice you were quoting but you had implied an equivalency.

I'm being needlessly pedantic but that's what I do.

Not being pedantic, just accurate.

Just getting back to the original post, the answer is still a big fat capitalised NO.

Being pedantic, I think you might mean led not lead?

Shouldn't that be for you - I'm sure that for some people in the UK the situation is that bad, or worse

In your quest to relay information, it's odd that you left this out:

"The number of people in work, both full-time and part-time, reached a record high of 29.87 million in the quarter, up 155,000."

Otoh, we're seeing a pattern of the recovery in many western countries not leading to significant falls in unemployment. It's a troubling situation.

Indeed - I have mentioned a few times on this thread that I am of the view that there's no definitive yes or no answer, and is dependent on many factors.

In the interest of balance - you must at least qualify that by saying it is anecdotal.

As I have posted earlier, it might be generally OK but if I, for example, were to attempt a return there is a good chance I'd be unemployed for a while. I'd not consider that 'not too bad', at least for the duration.

Did I really just type that ?

Yes, it should have. Why the hell was I thinking of plumbum?