Unemployment rate is down

Unemployment fell on the main count, official figures show. Under the Labour Force survey count, unemployed numbers fell by 51,000 in the three months to April to 2.61 million. The unemployment rate also fell from 8.4% to 8.2%

The decrease was largely taken up by a 49,000 fall in the number of jobless men to 1.49 million, and their unemployment rate was down to 8.7% from 9.0%.

However, the 1,000 fall in the number of unemployed women to 1.12 million was not enough to alter their unemployment rate of 7.7%.

There was a welcome fall in youth unemployment, but there are still 813,000 18- to 24-year-olds unemployed.

A recent TUC analysis of the long-term trend for unemployed 18- to 24-year-olds shows that in the last 12 years, the number who are out of work has leapt by 78%, compared to a 42% unemployment rise across all age groups.

The claimant count, which only includes people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), rose in May by 8,100 to stand at just under 1.6 million. The jobless rate of claimants was unchanged at 4.7%.

The number of male claimants rose by 8,700 to 1.08 million, although their jobless rate remained steady at 6.1%. The number of women claiming JSA showed a fall of just 60 to 520,700, and their jobless rate remained at 3.4%.