Jobless rate heads down again

The number of unemployed claimants fell by 5,300 to 1,042,400 in November or 3.6% of the working population. There were 797,600 claimant men (5%) and 244,800 women (1.9%). The fall reverses the rise in October and sees a resumption of the long- running downward trend.

Unemployment fell in all but two regions - the West Midlands and Northern Ireland - but the North East still tops the table with an unemployment rate of 6.3% followed by Northern Ireland with 5.4%.

On the government's preferred unemployment measure, the ILO count, the number of unemployed increased by 36,000 to 1,616,000. The unemployment rate increased to 5.5% in the three months to October from 5.3% in the previous three months.

The figures were released the day after Vauxhall announced the closure of its Luton plant (see page 5). And official figures show that manufacturing has shed 95,000 in the three months to October compared to a year earlier - a 2.4% fall over the year.

The GMB general union's Manufacturing Watch traced announcements of 6,784 job losses in November. GMB general secretary John Edmonds said: "The government must act to prevent the high level of the pound squeezing the life out of Britain's manufacturing heartland."