September 2009 saw The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish the latest UK employment figures, and they made for some very sobering reading.

Unemployment hit a 14-year high of 2.47 million after a 210,000 rise in the three months to July. The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance rose by 24,000 to 1.61 million in August - the highest since May 1997.

The recession's impact on young people in particular was under the spotlight after the revelations that jobless totals among 16 to 24 year olds hit 947,000 (19.7 per cent) - the highest level since ONS records began in 1992.

Overall jobless totals are at their highest since May 1995.

So what are people doing after redundancy, and how have they been adapting to their new circumstances? Over the next couple of weeks we'll investigate the top five redundancy related search trends emerging on Bing using Microsoft Advertising Intelligence.

Redundancy: the stats

Redundancy is trending ahead of voluntary redundancy on search volume. However, if we lay both trends out on separate axis you can see that they follow very similar patterns.

Firstly, redundancy searches peaked throughout the first quarter of 2009, directly after Christmas, and then declined to August 09 where they started to rise again when the extent of government debt and proposed public service cuts started to emerge in the media.

Secondly, the data suggests that a lot of people would consider taking voluntary redundancy if given the option, (some of the reasons we'll explain later).

The gender split of those generating redundancy related queries on Bing in the last 30 days is fairly evenly split with 50.21% female versus 49.79% males. While the largest age group is the 35 - 49 (42%), followed by 50 - 64 (25%) and 25-34 (20%).

So what are the emerging micro-trends?

We'll be looking at how redundancy is affecting peoples' finances, families, leisure time and future job prospects and aspirations. This week we'll be addressing finances, families and leisure time.

Home is where the heart is

Mortgage insurance and income protection policy searches are on the rise (106% YOY increase to August 09 on Bing), as people make contingency plans to secure their homes and incomes in these uncertain times.

Another trend that we have been following sees families (who would have previously been interested in moving house), staying put and making the best of what they already have. DIY, loft conversions and home improvements are firmly back on the agenda as people have more time to do those jobs around the home. That's a 42% year-on-year (YOY) increase to August 09 on Bing.

Maybe baby

As early as October 2008, UK sociologists and statisticians were predicting an imminent baby boom due to more women of child- rearing age spending increasingly longer periods of time at home due to recessionary factors.

Here in the UK Microsoft adCenter team, we were certainly seeing a baby boom trend emerging in our own data, which we subsequently blogged about in April: "Credit Crunch Baby Boom Insight: Search Engine Fact or Media Fiction?". Since the publication of the blog there has been a heightened interest in the childcare segment of Bing, especially from mother and baby focused FMCG brands and retailers.

The extent of the baby boom was finally confirmed by ONS and the media in August 09 when BBC news announced: "UK Baby Boom Frightens Newspapers"

Getting away from it all: the "grown-up" gap year

The term 'gap-year' normally conjures up images of teenage backpackers taking off to Thailand, Australia or Africa to discover themselves before knuckling down to a university career or a 'proper' job. What might be surprising is that older people, 50 - 64 year olds (Empty Nesters) and 25 - 34 year olds (DINKS) in these challenging times are following the kids and are taking to the highroad along with their redundancy payments.

Whilst there has indeed been a lot written about staycations in the media, there is still an undeniable appetite for world travel amongst the young and old. Searches for gap-year, adventure travel and worldwide holidays have seen a 15% YOY uplift to August 09 as people opt for walking boots and passports in a tactic to avoid the gloom of university clearing lists and dole queues.

Thanks for reading and please join Craig Brown next week when he will be wrapping up our short series about redundancy, focusing on jobs and education.

Cheers,

Kate