Unemployment rate shows fall

Unemployment was down on both counts, according to official figures.

Under the Labour Force Survey count, unemployment fell by 37,000 to 2.49 million in the three-month period ending November. The unemployment rate also dipped from 7.9% to 7.7%.

The fall was all due to the number of jobless men falling by 37,000 to 1.41 million. This saw their unemployment rate fall to 8.1% from 8.3%.

Unemployment for women was unchanged at 1.084 million and their unemployment rate remained at 3.3%.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that the better-than-expected employment figures “are masking high levels of under-employment and falsely self-employed workers, who may have hardly any paid work at all”.

Long-term unemployment remains a problem, although again numbers were down.According to the Office for National Statistics, 892,000 people had been unemployed for over one year. This was down 5,000 on the previous three-month period. And 434,000 people had been unemployed for over two years, down 10,000.

Unemployment on the other main jobless measure — the claimant count — fell by 12,100 to 1.56 million. This measure only includes those people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.