Unemployment levels drop again

Unemployment has fallen on both official counts, according to the Office for National Statistics. Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count it fell by 39,000 to 1.61 million in the three months to February 2008 compared with the previous three months.

The LFS count includes people not eligible for benefits. The unemployment rate was down to 5.2% from 5.3% in the previous three months to November 2007.

The number of unemployed men was 930,000 — down by 9,000 on the previous three months — and the number of unemployed women was down by 30,000 at 680,000. The unemployment rate for men was down to 5.5% from 5.6% and the rate for women down to 4.8% from 5.0% in the previous three months.

Unemployment under the claimant count was also down. The count, which only includes those drawing Jobseeker’s Allowance, fell to 794,300 (2.5%) in March. Upward revisions to the monthly figures means that the long run of monthly falls was broken in February. The March figure is a 1,200 fall on the revised figure for February. The number of unemployed men on benefit was down to 580,300 with the unemployment rate steady at 3.4% — and the number of unemployed women was down to 214,000 with the unemployment rate steady at 1.4%.

Manufacturing was down to 2.9 million jobs.