The number of Britons out of work has fallen to its lowest in almost a year, with the decline partly due to jobs created for the London Olympics as well as an increase in self- and part-time employment.
The improvement in the labour market comes at a time when the economy has been stuck in recession for nine months. The fact that employment is rising while output is falling has been described as a "genuine economic puzzle" by the Bank of England.
The figures bring some relief for David Cameron's government, which has pinned its hopes on private companies making up for the 700,000 jobs lost as part of its austerity measures.
Unemployment on the internationally recognised ILO measure fell by 46,000 in the three months to June to 2.56 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This took the jobless rate to 8%, the lowest since the three months to July 2011. In London, the number of people out of work fell by 42,000, suggesting that some of the improvement in the labour market was due to the Olympics.
The number of people claiming jobless benefits across Britain dropped by 5,900 last month, defying City forecasts of an increase.
The capital accounted for half the fall. Similarly, London accounted for half the new jobs created between April and June – 99,000 out of a total of 201,000 across the UK.
This rise in employment, to 29.476 million, was the biggest quarterly increase since the spring of 2010 and the highest level of employment since 2008.
Part-time employment reached a record high of 8.07 million while the number of employees and self-employed people who are working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job also hit a new high, of 1.42 million.
The headline figures contrast with the gloomy outlook painted by the Bank of England for the British economy last week.
It forecast no growth this year, while some City economists expect the economy to shrink. Many analysts expect unemployment to rise again in the coming months.
ING economist James Knightly said: "None of this is consistent with data showing the UK has contracted for three consecutive quarters and is growing at the same rates as Spain and Italy – where unemployment is moving sharply higher.
Moreover, UK employment is up 656,000 since the beginning of 2010 and is up 407,000 since last summer, when the UK apparently went into recession again."
The ONS's earnings data showed inflation of 2.6% in July still outpaced wage growth.
Total pay rose by 1.6% in the three months to June from a year earlier. Regular pay, excluding bonuses, was up 1.8%. Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said the improvement in unemployment was hard to square with Britain's double-dip recession.
"The latest labour market data shows improvement across the board, which is remarkable given the extended weakness of the economy.
While this is hard to explain, it is evident that ongoing restrained earnings growth as well as significant increases in part-time jobs and self-employment is helping to keep unemployment down.
"In addition, the holding of the Olympic Games appeared to provide at least a temporary boost to employment in the latest figures given the stronger performance of the London labour market," Archer added.
guardian.co.uk
The improvement in the labour market comes at a time when the economy has been stuck in recession for nine months. The fact that employment is rising while output is falling has been described as a "genuine economic puzzle" by the Bank of England.
The figures bring some relief for David Cameron's government, which has pinned its hopes on private companies making up for the 700,000 jobs lost as part of its austerity measures.
Unemployment on the internationally recognised ILO measure fell by 46,000 in the three months to June to 2.56 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This took the jobless rate to 8%, the lowest since the three months to July 2011. In London, the number of people out of work fell by 42,000, suggesting that some of the improvement in the labour market was due to the Olympics.
The number of people claiming jobless benefits across Britain dropped by 5,900 last month, defying City forecasts of an increase.
The capital accounted for half the fall. Similarly, London accounted for half the new jobs created between April and June – 99,000 out of a total of 201,000 across the UK.
This rise in employment, to 29.476 million, was the biggest quarterly increase since the spring of 2010 and the highest level of employment since 2008.
Part-time employment reached a record high of 8.07 million while the number of employees and self-employed people who are working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job also hit a new high, of 1.42 million.
The headline figures contrast with the gloomy outlook painted by the Bank of England for the British economy last week.
It forecast no growth this year, while some City economists expect the economy to shrink. Many analysts expect unemployment to rise again in the coming months.
ING economist James Knightly said: "None of this is consistent with data showing the UK has contracted for three consecutive quarters and is growing at the same rates as Spain and Italy – where unemployment is moving sharply higher.
Moreover, UK employment is up 656,000 since the beginning of 2010 and is up 407,000 since last summer, when the UK apparently went into recession again."
The ONS's earnings data showed inflation of 2.6% in July still outpaced wage growth.
Total pay rose by 1.6% in the three months to June from a year earlier. Regular pay, excluding bonuses, was up 1.8%. Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said the improvement in unemployment was hard to square with Britain's double-dip recession.
"The latest labour market data shows improvement across the board, which is remarkable given the extended weakness of the economy.
While this is hard to explain, it is evident that ongoing restrained earnings growth as well as significant increases in part-time jobs and self-employment is helping to keep unemployment down.
"In addition, the holding of the Olympic Games appeared to provide at least a temporary boost to employment in the latest figures given the stronger performance of the London labour market," Archer added.
guardian.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment