Claimant count falls but jobless rate rises

Unemployment fell for the first time in a year. The claimant count, which only includes those drawing Jobseeker’s Allowance, fell by 2,000 to 904,200 in January.

The unemployment rate under this count was unchanged at 2.9%. The number of unemployed men on benefit fell to 669,500 (a 3.9% rate), but the number of unemployed women rose by 700 to 234,700 (a 1.6% rate).

However, the number of unemployed under the Labour Force Survey count and the unemployment rate have increased. This measure of unemployment rose by 108,000 to 1.54 million in the three months to December compared with the previous quarter and was at its highest level since the August 2002.

This is the government’s preferred measure and includes people not eligible for benefits.

The unemployment rate was 5.1% — up from 4.7% for the previous quarter.

The number of unemployed men rose by 60,000 to 910,000 (a 5.5% rate), while the number of unemployed women rose by 48,000 to 632,000 (a 4.6% rate).

The number of people who said they had been made redundant in the three months to December was 143,500 — down 34,200 on the previous quarter.

The axe fell on 106,000 manufacturing jobs in the three months to December on a year earlier and employee numbers were down by 3.3% to 3.1 million.