According to a new survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the West Midlands was the region worst hit by the recession in terms of unemployment. Britain officially entered a recession - defined as two or more quarters in which the economy shrank - in the second quarter of 2008 and came out in the fourth quarter of 2009. Researchers looked at this period to compare the regional unemployment rates.
The data showed that across the country nearly 1 million workers lost their full-time jobs. Britain was in fact the last major economy to emerge from recession. To combat the recession, the Bank of England slashed interest rates to just 0.5pc - the lowest since the Bank was founded in 1694.
As one of Britain's main manufacturing centres, the West Midlands was particularly badly hit. Looking at Britain overall, manufacturing and the wholesale and retail trades suffered the greatest job losses, accounting for two in every five jobs. The region saw the steepest rise in its unemployment rate, which rose 4.7 percentage points over the course of the recession. The North West was almost as badly hit, with its unemployment rate rising four percentage points. In the South East and the Midlands, the unemployment rates only climbed 2.1 percentage points.
The ONS survey also considered the human cost of the recession. It reported a "clear increase" in suicides as the economy faltered. 329 people committed suicide in 2008 compared with the previous year, representing a 6pc increase. The number of suicides is "more closely related to economic changes" than other causes of death, the ONS researchers commented. On a more positive note, the study did show that the recession did not coincide with any distinct increase in the overall level of crime, which in fact continued to fall.