The recent data has highlighted that unemployment figures in rural areas registered a climb by a whopping 73% touching almost 250,000 people or 5% of the working age population during second half of last year.

However, in contrast to figures in urban areas the level of unemployment is recorded to have risen by over 39% over the same period touching 1. 7 million, as politicians scrambled to curb job losses in highly populated areas.

Despite of the fact that the overall number of unemployed people in the countryside is much lower, the statistics for the first time threw light on the impact of the economic slowdown that it had posed on the countryside.

Dr. Stuart Burgess, the Government's chief adviser on the countryside, quoted, "The recession has hit rural areas hard, with some rural areas experiencing greater increases in unemployment than urban ones”.

Nearly 25% of the households in rural areas are revealed to be in an 'income poverty' category, compared to a fifth of the country, the report, from the Government's rural advisory organization, the Commission for Rural Communities, pointed.

Burgess posted that the last recession period was the first ever economic downturn, where unemployment rates had surged at a faster rate in the countryside compared to that witnessed in rural areas.