Manufacturing jobs count drops another decimal

Dipping below the previous low of 2.9 million, today’s figure dropped to 2.89 million employee jobs in Britain’s manufacturing industries. In the three months to April 2008, the total was down 33,000 on the same period a year earlier Across the wider economy, the latest data shows a 76,000 increase in the number of people in employment but the employment rate is unchanged at 74.9 per cent. The number of unemployed people (up by 38,000), the unemployment rate (5.3 per cent) and the claimant count (up 9000) have all increased.