Unemployment continues to climb

The number of people out of work has risen further on both official counts.

Labour Force Survey (LFS) figures rose by 31,000 to 1.56 million in the three months to February compared with the previous quarter. The LFS is the government’s preferred measure and includes people not eligible for benefits.

The unemployment rate also rose to 5.1% from 5.0% for the previous quarter.

Male unemployment was unchanged at 900,000 (a 5.5% rate), but the number of unemployed women rose by 31,000 to 659,000 (a 4.7% rate).

The claimant count, which only includes those drawing Jobseeker’s Allowance, also rose by 12,600 to 937,600 in March from the revised figure of 925,000 for February.

The claimant count has now risen in 13 out of the last 14 months.

The unemployment rate under this count was up to 3.0%.

The number of unemployed men on benefit rose by 9,400 to 694,600 (a 4.1% rate), and the number of unemployed women rose by 3,200 to 243,000 (a 1.7% rate).

The manufacturing sector lost 113,000 jobs in the three months to February on a year earlier and employee numbers were down by 3.6% to 3.07 million.