AFTER a year as Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney must be feeling the pressure; his efforts are not getting a good press.

In an early statement he said he would not raise interest rates from 0.5 per cent until unemployment had dropped below 7 per cent. It’s now 6.6 but no move yet.

This made me think; how does one ascertain the percentage unemployed with 1.4 million on zero hours, 330,000 taking up self employment and as the Tory chairman, Grant Shapps told us on Daily Politics, of the 30 million in employment only 75 per cent were full time.

So 7.5 million are in part time employment.

Now two economists, David Bell and David Blanchflower (a one time member of the MPC), have come up with the answer.

The last time the economy was close to full employment was before the financial crisis in 2007. There was little or no under-employment then. Today it is so widespread it would add 1.8 per cent to the unemployment rate. The last time interest rates were raised was in July 2007, the total unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent – 5.5 per cent unemployment plus 0.3 per cent under employment. Today the figure is 8.4 per cent – 6.6 per cent unemployment, plus 1.8 per cent under employment.

As I have said before the Tories are good at hiding the truth where unemployment is concerned.

Remember the 70k who were put on incapacity benefit to hide their embarrassment? It’s why they are called the party of unemployment.

Mark Carney knows the true state of unemployment, that’s why he has not raised interested rates. It’s 8.4 per cent!

M J Warner, Groundwell Road, Swindon