Eighth fall in dole figure

UK unemployment has continued to fall with the number claiming unemployment benefit falling by 12,000 in June to 963,700. It was the eighth successive monthly fall, and takes the number of UK dole claimants to its lowest level for 25 years. The unemployment rate was steady at 3.2% of the workforce.

The number of male claimants fell by 10,100 to 733,500, a rate of 4.5%. And the number of women claimants fell marginally by 1,900 to 230,200 or 1.7%.

The decline in the claimant count was spread across the country with all regions showing falls. But the North East and Northern Ireland still have high unemployment rates compared to the national average, with 5.4% and 5.1% respectively.

On the government's preferred measure of unemployment - the ILO count which attempts to measure all job seekers, including those not claiming benefits - the jobless rate fell to a new record low of 1,453,000 in the three months to May. The rate fell to 4.9%.

National Statistics also reported a big drop of 6.7% in the number of vacancies in jobcentres, which suggest a tightening of the labour market amid a flurry of announcements on job losses (see page 5).

However, jobs in service sector firms rose by 227,000 in the year to March.