Member Article

UK unemployment continues to drop on the eve of Scotland vote

According to new figures from the Office of National Statistics, UK employment continued to rise and unemployment continued to fall.

There were 30.61 million people in work between May and July 2014. This was 74,000 more than for February to April 2014, the smallest quarterly increase since April to June 2013.

Comparing May to July 2014 with a year earlier, there were 774,000 more people in work.

The proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate), was 73.0%, slightly higher than for February to April 2014 (72.9%) and higher than for a year earlier (71.6%).

There were 2.02 million unemployed people, 146,000 fewer than for February to April 2014 and 468,000 fewer than a year earlier. This is the largest annual fall in unemployment since 1988.

The unemployment rate continued to fall, reaching 6.2% for May to July 2014, the lowest since late 2008. The unemployment rate is the proportion of the economically active population (those in work plus those seeking and available to work) who were unemployed.

Nick Clegg said: “I’m delighted by today’s employment figures which show that we are seeing more women going in to work, and that that youth unemployment has dropped by the biggest amount in many many years.

“There’s a long way to go until this recovery is fully felt. That’s why I’ve been at the forefront of taking people on low pay out of income tax.

“The fact that we have so many young people finally having the opportunity to get their feet on the first rung of the jobs ladder is really good news.”

Neil Carberry, CBI director for Employment & Skills, said: “The fact that unemployment is lower now than at any time since late 2008 is good news. There is more to do, but it’s clear that our growing economy is feeding through to new jobs.

“Jobs growth is coming from the private sector, more than making up for public sector job losses, and more young people are finding their feet in our labour market.

“With unemployment dropping, and wage settlements in larger firms starting to pick up, we expect to see average earnings growth begin to rise in time.”

Photo courtesy of Chatham House labelled for re-use under this Creative Commons licence

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .