Manufacturing job count falls to record low

The number of jobs in UK manufacturing now stands at 2.68 million, the lowest since records began in 1978 and a figure that reveals the loss of 201,000 jobs in the past year. And given that a recovery in employment invariably lags behind an upturn in the economy, the bleak jobs scene is likely to get worse before it gets better. Across the whole economy, the number of unemployed people, the unemployment rate and the claimant count have all increased and the number of vacancies has fallen. The unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent for the three months to May 2009, up 0.9 over the previous quarter and up 2.4 over the year – the largest quarterly increase in the unemployment rate since 1981. The number of unemployed people increased by 281,000 over the quarter and by 753,000 over the year, to reach 2.38 million. This is the largest quarterly increase in the number of unemployed people since comparable records began in 1971. The claimant count, which measures the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, reached 1.56 million in June 2009. It has not been higher since June 1997. The redundancies level for the three months to May 2009 was 301,000, up 31,000 over the quarter and up 182,000 over the year. There were 429,000 job vacancies in the three months to June 2009. This is the lowest figure since comparable records began in 2001 and it is down 35,000 over the previous quarter and down 222,000 over the year. All sectors have shown falls in vacancies over the quarter with the largest fall occurring in finance and business services (down 16,000).