Unemployment continues to fall
Unemployment fell at the start of the 2016 — by 28,000 to 1.69 million in the three months to January. That fall cut the unemployment rate to 5.1% from 5.2%, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The number of unemployed men decreased by 16,000 to 923,000 and their unemployment rate was cut to 5.2% from 5.3%. The number of unemployed women was only down by 12,000 to 762,000. However, it was enough to cut their unemployment rate to 4.9% from 5.0%.
In February, unemployment under the claimant count was down by 18,000 to 716,700 from the revised figure for January of 734,700. The claimant count only includes claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance and those on the means-tested Universal Credit. The fall in numbers was, however, not enough to impact on the joblessness rate which remained at 2.1%.
In February, the ONS began publishing a figure for Great Britain on the number of people claiming the main out-of-work benefits including unemployment-related benefits, Employment and Support Allowance and other incapacity benefits.
The latest figures are for August 2015 when there were 3.79 million people claiming main out-of-work benefits. This represented 9.5% of the population aged from 16 to 64.