Record employment growth

At the same time the independent figures from the Office for National Statistics show the numbers claiming unemployment benefit fell for the 15th consecutive month to 807,700, the lowest it has been for over 30 years. Welcoming the figures Employment Minister Caroline Flint said: “I'm pleased to see these figures showing growth in employment for both younger and older workers alike - with 60,000 more 16-24 year olds and 95,000 more people over 50 in work than in the last quarter. With record numbers of vacancies in the economy the opportunities exist for people to make the most of their skills and talents. “These are another set of positive figures on the labour market. But we are determined to do more through our comprehensive welfare reform programme and the roll out of local employment partnerships to help ensure everyone gets the chance they deserve.” Employment is at record levels - 29.36 million people were in work in September to November, the highest figure on record - Employment rose by 175 thousand on the quarter and 263 thousand on the year - The employment rate is 74.7%, up 0.3 percentage points on the quarter, and up 0.1 percentage points on the year Other highlights include that the numbers on all the main out of-of-work benefits are falling; vacancies remain very high and redundancies are very low.