| CATEGORY: NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS |
UK unemployment figures in line with expectations |
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Wed 16 Sep 2009
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - Unemployment continued to rise in the UK in the three months to July 2009 though the figures from the Office for National Statistics were broadly in line with expectations.
The unemployment rate rose to 7.9% in the quarter ending 31 July 2009 from 7.2% in the preceding quarter. The rate was 2.3 percentage points higher than in the corresponding period of 2008, and the highest level for almost 13 years.
The number of unemployed people rose by 210,000 to 2.47m and was 743,000 higher than in the three months to July 2008. Economists has been expecting an increase of 200,000.
The working age employment rate slipped to 72.5% from 73.3% in the previous quarter and was 2.1 percentage points lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2008.
The number of people in public sector employment has actually increased, however, rising 13,000 from March 2009’s level to 6.04m in June 2009. Private sector employment fell 230,000 to 22.85m over the same period.
Vacancy levels have declined. There were 434,000 job vacancies in the three months to August 2009, down 12,000 from the three months to May 2009 and down 174,000 from a year earlier.
Average earnings (excluding bonuses) in Great Britain in the three months to July 2009 were up 2.2% from a year earlier, but down 0.2 percentage points on the level fro the three months to June 2006. The annual increase in earnings was the lowest since the government started keeping records of this measure in 2001.
With bonuses included average earnings rose by 1.7% year on year, but were down 0.8 percentage points on the three month period to June 2009.
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