Mixed message on unemployment

There were mixed signals from the latest unemployment figures.

Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count it fell by 7,000 to 1.42 million in the three months to August compared with the previous quarter. This is the government's preferred measure and includes people not eligible for benefits.

The unemployment rate was 4.7% - unchanged on the previous quarter. There were 842,000 unemployed men (a 5.2% rate) and 575,000 women (a 4.2% rate).

The claimant count, which only includes those drawing Jobseekers' Allowance, rose for the eighth consecutive month to 875,500 in September - a rise of 8,200 on the previous month.

The unemployment rate under this count was steady at 2.8%. The number of unemployed men on benefit rose to 650,800 (a 3.8% rate), and the number of unemployed women rose to 224,700 (a 1.6% rate).

The number of people who said they were made redundant was 151,000 in the three months to August - up 23,000 on the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector continued to shed jobs. The number of manufacturing employee jobs in the three months to August was down by 98,000 or 3.0% on a year ago to 3.18 million.

This is the lowest level since comparable records began in 1978.