Another low for manufacturing jobs

In the three months to January 2008, the number of manufacturing jobs fell to 2.9 million, a drop of 28,000 or one per cent from the same period a year earlier and again marked the lowest level since records began in 1978. Manufacturing unit wage costs increased by 1.7 per cent over the same period. However, across the whole economy, the trend in the employment rate is increasing and the trends in the unemployment and inactivity rates are falling. There has been a further fall in the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance benefit and the number of job vacancies has increased. The employment rate for people of working age was 74.8 per cent for the three months and the number of people in employment was 29.46 million. This is the highest figure since comparable records began in 1971 and is up 166,000 over the quarter and up 367,000 over the year. The unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent with the number of unemployed people decreasing by 32,000 over the quarter and by 89,000 over the year, to reach 1.61 million. The quarterly fall in unemployment mainly occurred among 16 to 17-year-olds.