Unemployment rate lowest for seven years

Nick Elvin

UK unemployment has fallen to its lowest level since July 2008, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

According to the ONS Labour Market Statistics, for the three months ending in February there were 1.84 million unemployed people – 76,000 fewer than for September to November 2014 and 416,000 fewer than for a year earlier.

Employment continued to rise, with 31.05 million people in work, 248,000 more than for September to November 2014 and 557,000 more than for a year earlier.

The proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate) was 73.4% – the highest since comparable records began in 1971.

The proportion of the economically active population who were unemployed (the unemployment rate) was 5.6%, lower than for September to November 2014 (5.8%) and for a year earlier (6.9%). The economically active population is those in work plus those seeking and available to work.

There were 8.99 million people aged from 16 to 64 who were out of work and not seeking or available to work (known as economically inactive), 104,000 fewer than for September to November 2014 but 11,000 more than for a year earlier. The proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 who were economically inactive (the inactivity rate) was 22.1% – lower than for September to November 2014 (22.4%) but unchanged compared with a year earlier.

And comparing the three months ending in February 2015 with a year earlier, pay for employees increased by 1.7% including bonuses and by 1.8% excluding bonuses.

Responding to the Labour Market Statistics, Ann Swain, chief executive of The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) said: “It is heartening to see that employment is continuing to rise and at 73.4% is the highest since comparable records began – and higher than the pre-downturn peak in early 2008.

“This mirrors our own findings which saw a 25% rise in professional level vacancies year on year – although there was a slight cooling month on month mainly due to election uncertainty.

“The ONS figures also point to a modest 1.7% increase in pay – lower than the growth rate which is also in line with our latest professional trends report which found an average increase of 1.2% in professional level salaries.”

Swain added: “However, the latest ONS figure also point to a 6,000 quarter-on-quarter decrease in staff employed by the public sector – the lowest figure since comparable records began in 1999. With the increased pressure on our public services this is a worrying trend.”