Vacancies and earnings both up_2
17 September 2012
The number of people unemployed in the UK fell 23,000 to 1.69m for the three months to December, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This brings the unemployment rate down to 5.5%,
This brings the unemployment rate down to 5.5%,
The number of people unemployed in the UK fell 23,000 to 1.69m for the three months to December, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This brings the unemployment rate down to 5.5%, from 5.6% for the previous quarter. The employment level was 29.04m, up 51,000.
Average earnings, including bonuses, were up 4% on a year ago, and up 3.7% when bonuses were excluded. In both cases, this is a slowdown of 0.1% on the rate of increase in the previous quarter.
There were 607,900 vacancies on average in the quarter, up 7,300 on the previous quarter.
The number of people claiming benefits fell 13,500 to 928,500 in February.
Kean Marden, analyst at Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, told Recruiter: "We regard the earnings data as more important. We've got our own more up-to-date information, which showed that there some big increases in the January pay round. That's good news for staffing companies. It's the closest thing you can get to free profit, as their commissions will go up."
Dr John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, said: "The welcome fall in the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance in December disguises an interesting phenomenon. There was a big jump in both the number of people making fresh benefit claims and the number leaving the count."
He continued: "The fact that this occurred during a period of low and stable redundancies suggests a marked degree of churn in and out of claimant unemployment at present — an observation that squares with evidence that employers are at present hiring additional staff mainly on temporary contracts."
This brings the unemployment rate down to 5.5%, from 5.6% for the previous quarter. The employment level was 29.04m, up 51,000.
Average earnings, including bonuses, were up 4% on a year ago, and up 3.7% when bonuses were excluded. In both cases, this is a slowdown of 0.1% on the rate of increase in the previous quarter.
There were 607,900 vacancies on average in the quarter, up 7,300 on the previous quarter.
The number of people claiming benefits fell 13,500 to 928,500 in February.
Kean Marden, analyst at Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, told Recruiter: "We regard the earnings data as more important. We've got our own more up-to-date information, which showed that there some big increases in the January pay round. That's good news for staffing companies. It's the closest thing you can get to free profit, as their commissions will go up."
Dr John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, said: "The welcome fall in the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance in December disguises an interesting phenomenon. There was a big jump in both the number of people making fresh benefit claims and the number leaving the count."
He continued: "The fact that this occurred during a period of low and stable redundancies suggests a marked degree of churn in and out of claimant unemployment at present — an observation that squares with evidence that employers are at present hiring additional staff mainly on temporary contracts."
