New figures show that the number of UK jobless has fallen to its lowest level since 2008.\u00a0 The figures mark yet another milestone to the end of a year-on-year rise in unemployment since the start of the recession. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of jobless fell by 146,000 to 2.02 million over the last quarter, whilst people claiming Jobseeker\u2019s Allowance fell below one million for the first time in the same period.<\/p>\n
The findings also show a marked drop in the number of jobless 16-to-24 year olds, an age group which has notoriously suffered.\u00a0 Unemployment figures for this age group dropped by 106,000 to 747,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were the largest quarterly and annual falls in youth unemployment since comparable records began in 1992,\u201d the ONS said.<\/p>\n
Responding to the figures, Chancellor George Osborne said: \u201cToday\u2019s employment stats mark another step towards full employment.\u00a0 But there is still much more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, average weekly earnings still lag behind inflation.\u00a0 Excluding bonuses, average earnings rose by 0.7%, whilst the current rate of inflation remains at 1.5%.<\/p>\n
In response to the published figures, Stephen Timms, Labour\u2019s Shadow Employment Minister, said: \u201cToday\u2019s fall in overall unemployment is welcome, but the new figures have shown working people are seeing their pay falling far behind the cost of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cPay excluding bonuses today is the lowest on record.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent commentators have suggested that the Bank of England is unlikely to raise interest rates in the immediate future, with average wage growth applying limited pressure.<\/p>\n
However, Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: \u201cThe further marked fall in unemployment points to a still rapidly tightening labour market, thereby seemingly boosting the case for an interest hike sooner rather than later by the Bank of England.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New figures show that the number of UK jobless has fallen to its lowest level since 2008.\u00a0 The figures mark yet another milestone to the end of a year-on-year rise in unemployment since the start of the recession. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}