Substantial fall in unemployment
Unemployment has fallen substantially, official figures show. The number of unemployed people under the Labour Force Survey count fell by 110,000 to 1.71 million in the three months to October.
The unemployment rate was down from 5.5% to 5.2% — the lowest jobless rate since the three-month period to January 2006, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The number of unemployed women fell by 60,000 to 774,000 and their unemployment rate was down to 5.0% from 5.4%. The fall in male unemployment was only 50,000, taking their total to 939,000. Their unemployment rate was cut from 5.6% to 5.3%.
On the other main jobless count — the claimant count — numbers were once again up, by 3,900 to 796,200 in November. Unemployment under this count only includes claimants of employment-related benefits, people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance and the means-tested Universal Credit. However, the increase was not sufficient to affect the joblessness rate which remained at 2.3%.
Women claimant numbers were up by 3,300 to 283,300 and their joblessness rate increased to 1.8% from 1.7%. Male claimant numbers were up by only 600 to 513,000, and their joblessness rate was unchanged at 2.8%.