Unemployment continues to fall

Official figures show unemployment is still on a downward trend, but living standards continue to be hit.

Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count, unemployment fell by 115,000 to 1.96 million in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the previous quarter’s total of 2.07 million.

The unemployment rate also fell — from 6.3% to 6.0%. The number of unemployed men fell by 57,000 to 1.09 million and their unemployment rate was down to 6.2% from 6.5%. The 57,000 cut in the number of unemployed women clipped their total to 872,000 from 930,000. Their unemployment rate was cut to 5.7% from 6.1%.

Under the claimant count, which only includes those on Jobseeker’s Allowance, unemployment fell by 20,400 to 931,700 in October, but the joblessness rate was unchanged at 2.8%.

The number of male claimants fell by 13,600 to 600,900 but their joblessness rate was unchanged at 3.4%.

Women claimants’ numbers fell by only 6,800 to 330,800 and their joblessness rate fell to 2.1% from 2.2%.

Official figures showed average wages grew by 1.4% in September against 0.9% in August but that still leaves them lagging behind RPI inflation by 0.9 percentage points. So workers’ living standards are still being hit.

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/november-2014/index.html