BRITAIN’s unemployment crisis is hitting middle England hard.

The casualty list of workers that will soon be joining the dole queue has grown by almost 30,000 in the last fortnight as the jobless rate nears the 2m mark and reaches its highest level for almost 11 years.

It is a similar tale around the world where more than 80,000 job cuts were announced this week, though banking giant Citigroup accounted for 52,000 of those.

Labour forces will continue to shrink as output declines sharply in developed economies and growth in emerging markets such as China, Russia and Brazil continues to slow.

As unemployment rises sharply, business groups are now predicting a jobless total of about 2m by Christmas and 3m by the end of next year.

This week around 9,000 job cuts were announced by British companies or foreign firms operating in the UK. They include: Citigroup – of 52,000 jobs that are going worldwide, an estimated 2,400 will be lost in London at its Canary Wharf headquarters.

Avis Europe said it was cutting 315 posts, of which up to 100 could be lost in the UK; Wolseley, the construction group, announced 2,000 more job losses on top of earlier reductions.

National Express is trimming more than 300 workers from its East Anglia franchise, and Hoover will axe nearly 340 jobs in Merthyr Tydfil.

Independent News and Media, publisher of The Independent and Independent on Sunday, announced 90 staff would go at its British titles.

Stockbroker Collins Stewart said it was cutting its staff by 20, on the same day as Fidelity International, the investment-fund manager, revealed around 300 cuts.

Deutsche Bank said it was shedding 900 jobs, mainly in London and New York. SIG, a Sheffield-based insulation company, also said it was cutting its workforce by 900.

Rolls-Royce said up to 2,000 jobs would go over the next year. Astra Zeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals company, is closing three European factories, affecting about 250 jobs in the UK.

A further 200 jobs will go at BAE Systems’ UK factories, while publisher Daily Mail and General Trust has shed 400 jobs in recent weeks.

The jobs carnage continued a pattern set the previous week when British companies axed almost 20,000 jobs collectively.

The biggest losses were: BT, which plans to lose 10,000 jobs; RBS, where 1,800 jobs will go; cable group Virgin Media, which is axing around 2,200 of its staff; Yellow Pages directories firm Yell which expects to shed 1,300 jobs; and housebuilder Taylor Wimpey where 1,000 people will be made unemployed.

The banking crisis has meant financial services have been the hardest hit, but other sectors are catching up, particularly car manufacturing where in the US the government is stalling on granting an industry-requested bailout.

At Japan’s biggest carmaker, Toyota, 3,000 job cuts are planned, 1,300 will go at Mazda, 1,400 at Isuzu, while 2,100 European positions will be scrapped at Peugeot-Citroën. Thousands more European job losses will occur at Sandvik of Sweden and Voestalpine in Austria, while the cuts at Astra Zeneca and Rolls-Royce will also be felt in Europe.