Local MP Rushanara Ali is calling on the Conservative-led Government to take urgent action to create jobs in the East End, following the news that both long-term unemployment and long-term youth unemployment increased in Bethnal Green and Bow over the course of 2012.

The latest ONS Labour Market Statistics show that the number of young people claiming Jobseekers Allowance for more than 12 months in Bethnal Green and Bow went up by more than a third in 2012, and long term unemployment increased by more than 20% in the constituency over the same period.

Rushanara said: “The headline fall in unemployment is welcome news. But these figures also show that there are more long-term unemployed people across the UK than at any time since 1997.

“We simply cannot afford to let this crisis to continue. That is why we in the Labour Party have been consistently calling on the Government to introduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses to fund a Real Jobs Guarantee for every young person who has been out of work for a year.”

The figures also demonstrated that wages are growing at 1.3%, less than half the inflation rate of 2.7%.

Rushanara added: “The new figures also lay bare the fact that prices are still rising much, much faster than wages. That's a real worry when the government's Welfare Uprating Bill is punishing working families by cutting their tax credits while millionaires are being handed an £107,000 tax cut that simply cannot be justified.”