The effects of unemployment will lead to a sharp economic downturn, according to a CEBR economist.
Job losses and declining output will mean a "stagnant" 2009 for the UK economy, an expert has said.
Charles Davis at the Centre for Economic and Business Research (cebr) forecasted today that unemployment would become "increasingly persuasive" in British society, as the downturn continues over the course of this year.
Latest unemployment statistics show a recent uptick to an eight-year high of 1.86 million. This number seems set to grow by hundreds of thousands over the months to come, with businesses finding it harder and harder to make ends meet.
Overall, the government predicts that the economy will shrink by around one percent in 2009. However, some groups are forecasting an economic contraction of three percent - which would lead to many more job losses.
Charles Davis, economist at CEBR, said: "We will be continuing with rising unemployment; unemployment is an increasingly pervasive thing across society unfortunately as businesses struggle with their bottom line and have these difficult decisions [to make].
"We'll probably see in the fourth quarter of 2008 there to be no growth and the contraction will probably be larger than the contraction we saw in quarter three and we expect a basically stagnant 2009, with output falling overall over the year and unemployment rising."
