Jobless count falls back

Unemployment has fallen on both official counts. The Labour Force Survey figure (formerly described as the ILO figure) includes people not eligible for benefit and is the government's preferred measure. It fell by 5,000 to 1,515,000 in the three months to November 2002 compared to the previous three months.

The rate of joblessness on that count was steady at 5.2% of the workforce. There were 903,000 unemployed men (a 5.7% rate) and 612,000 women (a 4.6% rate).

The claimant count fell in December 2002 for the sixth successive month. The number of people out of work and claiming benefit fell by 5,800 to 928,300 - an unemployment rate of 3.1%. There were 699,300 unemployed men (a 4.3% rate) and 229,000 unemployed women (a 1.7% rate).

Meanwhile the number of people in employment rose. There were 27.8 million people aged 16 or over in employment in the three months to November 2002.

Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary elect, said: "These are encouraging figures. The domestic labour market as a whole is holding up well."

But he added that another 10,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing in November. "A pre-emptive cut in interest rates is still needed to support the export sectors against the global economic downturn," he said.