Record numbers in work
1 min read
New figures which show record numbers of people in employment are welcomed by employment minister, Caroline Flint, with the Labour Market figures showing employment is up, unemployment is down and numbers on the claimant count have fallen.
Flint says: “Once again we have a strong set of labour market figures with record numbers in work. We have made real improvements since 1997 – reducing the number of people claiming unemployment benefit by almost half and seeing numbers on all main out of work benefits fall in total by around a million.
“But, we are determined to reach full employment, something which would have been unimaginable 10 years ago.”
Employment is up 132 thousand on the year, and up 84 thousand on the quarter. The number claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell 4.2 thousand in August to 852.9 thousand. It is down 100 thousand over the year.
The September Labour Force Survey covers May to July 2007. The claimant unemployment and vacancy count dates were 9th June and 3rd June respectively.
The labour market is in a strong position
- 29.1 million people were in work in May to July, the highest figure on record
- The employment rate is 74.4%, up on the quarter (0.1 points) but down on the year (0.2 points)
- The working age inactivity rate is 21.2%, near its lowest since 1992
- The unemployment rate is 5.4%, down 0.2 percentage points on the year
- Vacancies remain very high at 663 thousand and redundancies are very low.
