Unemployment rate rises

Unemployment rose on both official counts.

Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count it rose by 72,000 to 1.49 million in the three months to October compared with the previous quarter.

This count is the government's preferred measure and includes people not eligible for benefits.

The unemployment rate was 4.9% - up from 4.7% for the previous quarter.

The number of unemployed men rose by 47,000 to 884,000 (a 5.4% rate) while the number of unemployed women rose by 25,000 to 607,000 women (a 4.4% rate).

The claimant count, which only includes those drawing Jobseekers' Allowance, rose for the tenth successive month to 902,000 in November - a rise of 10,500 on October.

The unemployment rate under this count rose to 2.9%.

The number of unemployed men on benefit rose to 669,400 (a 3.9% rate), and the number of unemployed women on benefit rose to 232,600 (a 1.6% rate).

Manufacturing

Manufacturing shed 115,000 jobs in the three months to October and employee numbers were down by 3.6% to 3.1 million.

Employment could fall below three million by next year, according to a survey from the EEF manufacturers' organisation.