UK Unemployment
Labour Market Statistics
August 11 2010 - The unemployment rate stands at 7.8% - down 0.2% over the quarter and unchanged over the year.
29.02 million people were in work in the period April to June according to the labour force survey (LFS).
The number of people employed was up by 184,000 this quarter and up by 104,000 from last year.
The working age employment rate is 70.5% - up by 0.3% on the last quarter but down 0.3% on last year.
ILO-defined unemployment in April to June was 2.46 million (7.8%) -
down by 49,000 on the previous quarter but up 23,000 from a year previously.
The claimant count for key out-of-work benefits in July was 1,461,200 million -
down by 3,800 on last month and down by 120,400 on last year.
Earnings growth over the year to April-June (excluding bonuses) was 1.6%.
Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said:
"These figures are a small step in the right direction, though we absolutely do not underestimate the scale of the economic
challenge we face.
"The fact that there are still five million people on out of work benefits underlines the scale of Britain’s welfare challenge and shows that we are right to radically overhaul our welfare system. Our reforms will mean that people are always financially better off in work; people will no longer be trapped in a life on benefits.
"From early next year we will start full scale re-testing of Incapacity Benefit claimants and our Work Programme will come into force to ensure that long term unemployed people and others who need it have tailored support to move them into sustained work.”
Commenting on the latest statistics, Gerwyn Davies, public policy adviser at the CIPD, said:
"This looks like yet another set of strong and encouraging figures on the surface. However, cracks now seem to be emerging; with
a considerable growth in part-time work, lower pay settlements and a slower decline in the claimant count all features of a more uncertain jobs
market. As the CIPD predicted earlier this year, the strong progress that we have seen in the first half of this year is set to stall thanks to
a series of headwinds that are about to hit the jobs market.
"A larger crack will emerge when the real impact of the cuts on the public sector take effect in the autumn, with a question
mark now hanging over the capacity of the private sector to fill it. The prospect of the public sector cutbacks is now being accompanied by
more uncertainty in some parts of the private sector, as wariness sets in thanks to the wider impact of both the cuts and the VAT increase.
With uncertainty creeping back into the jobs market, and with the Bank of England now lowering sharply its economic growth forecast, it is encouraging that the Bank of England have lowered their interest rate expectations.
"The figures may also herald a gender divide in terms of job prospects, with unemployment increasing for women. This should come
as no surprise since women make up a disproportionately large number of the public sector workforce.""
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