Unemployment moves ever lower
UK unemployment has continued to fall, official figures show, with the number down by 57,000 to 1.48 million in the three-month period ending June.
The fall in numbers impacted on the unemployment rate which was cut to 4.4% from 4.6%. The last time the rate was lower was in the April-June period 1975, the Office for National Statistics said.
The number of unemployed men fell by 34,000 to 818,000. The fall in numbers was enough to cut their unemployment rate to 4.6% from 4.8%.
The number of jobless women fell by 23,000 to 666,000 and their unemployment rate fell to 4.2% from 4.4% in the previous three-month period.
The claimant count — which only includes claimants receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance and those on the means-tested Universal Credit — fell for the first time in four months. In July 2017, unemployment under this count was down by 4,200 to 807,800 from the revised figure of 812,000 for June.
The fall in numbers, however, was not enough to affect the joblessness rate which remained at 2.3%.
The numbers of male and female claimants fell, but their joblessness rates remained steady at 2.7% and 1.8% respectively.