UK Unemployment Down

UK unemployment has dropped in the 3 months to the end of May.  New figures released from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) have shown numbers fell by around 34000 people to 2.47m.

The figures have also shown a decrease in the number of people in the UK that are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, dropping to 1.46m, 20800 less than the last official results.  This means that the jobless rate is now at its lowest in 6 months at 7.8% and is also slightly better than forecasted.

During the same period, the number of people in work saw its steepest gain in 4 years, shooting up by 160000, this is however due to a record increase in part time workers.  These were up 148000, meaning a rise in full time positions of just 12000.

This sharp rise in the number of part time workers now sees the percentage of workers in part time positions at its highest rate since recodes began 18 years ago at 27%.

The stats have also shown that the best results were shown in England.  Despite the UK lowering unemployment as a whole, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all saw a rise in unemployment of 0.3%, 0.1% and 0.6% respectively.

The UK figures will raise hopes that the economic recovery is gaining momentum. Although some experts think unemployment could start rising again by the end of next year.

In a speech made yesterday, Andrew Sentence, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee said that the labour market had now stabilised.

"Evidence from the Bank of England's agents and recent employment surveys is that the labour market in the UK has stabilised and that labour demand in the private sector may have already started to pick up."

David Tinsley, an economist at National Australia Bank in London and a former Bank of England official, agreed that rising unemployment had come to an end - for now.

"It may pick up again next year. It's hard to see how a steady pace of improvement will be maintained as public-sector job losses start to bite."

Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, was also cautious about future downward trends. "We still doubt that private sector hiring will pick up strongly enough to offset the severe public sector job cuts," she said.

Posted at 03:12PM Jul 14, 2010 by Marc Stenton in The Economy  |  Comments[0]