Manufacturing jobs fall again

The total number of jobs in manufacturing fell by 92,000 to 3.24 million in the three months to January 2005. This is the lowest level since comparable records began in 1978.

In contrast, overall employment levels increased by 127,000 over the quarter to reach the highest level since records began in 1971.

Meanwhile, unemployment under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count rose by 22,000 to 1.4 million in the three months to January 2005, compared with the previous three months. The LFS count is the government's preferred measure and includes people not eligible for benefits.

This represents an unemployment rate of 4.7% - unchanged on the previous quarter. There were 828,000 unemployed men (a 5.1% rate) and 583,000 women (a 4.2% rate).

The apparent contradiction between rising unemployment and the high number of people in work can be explained by an increase in the working population and a fall in those who are economically inactive.

Meanwhile, the claimant count of unemployed, which only includes those drawing jobseeker's allowance benefit, fell by 700 to 813,300 in February.

The unemployment rate under this count was steady at 2.6%. The number of unemployed men fell to 602,600 (a 3.6% rate), and the figure for women fell to 210,700 (a 1.5% rate).