Unemployment in the United Kingdom is expected to rise by 100,000 through the summer, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

The report stated that “50,000 more men and [50,000] more…women will become unemployed…with 100,000 public sector jobs lost and the 200,000 new jobs created in the private sector being matched by the increase in the number of people looking for work in the UK.”

Cuts in public sector jobs are in reaction to the struggling economy.

“The government has been relying on private firms to create enough employment to make up for the estimated 700,000 jobs it is cutting in the public sector as part of its austerity programme, aimed at erasing the country’s huge budget deficit over the next five years,” Reuters reported.

Research from the Office for National Statistics revealed that the number of unemployed in the UK hit 2.67 million—a rate of 8.4 percent—and those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance increased by 7,200 to 1.61 million. Nasdaq.com wrote that jobless claims are the highest since October 2009.

Kayte Lawton, a senior research fellow at IPPR said, “The risk is that high unemployment becomes a permanent feature of the UK economy, as it did in the 1980s.”

In addition, Sky News reported that unemployment is at a 17-year high.

“…unemployment is a lagging indicator: and so as the economy weakens in the coming months, it suggests that unemployment will increase even further.”