Unemployment hits 30-year low

Unemployment is under 800,000 for the first time in over 30 years, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The claimant count, which only includes those drawing Jobseeker’s Allowance, fell for the sixteenth successive month and reached 794,600 in January 2008 — the lowest figure since June 1975 when it was 774,200.

The January figure shows a 10,800 fall on the previous month (a steady unemployment rate of 2.5%.) The number of unemployed men on benefit was down to 578,900 (an unemployment rate of 3.4%) while the number of unemployed women was down to 215,700 (an unemployment rate of 1.4%.)

Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count it fell by 61,000 to 1.61 million in the final quarter of 2007. The LFS count includes people not eligible for benefits and is the government’s preferred measure.

The unemployment rate was down to 5.2% on the previous quarter. The number of unemployed men was 912,000 — down 38,000 and the number of jobless women was down by 23,000 to 694,000. The unemployment rate was down to 5.4% for men and down to 4.9% for women.

The decline in manufacturing continued, with 31,000 jobs lost in the final quarter of 2007 compared to a year earlier, and employment is down to 2.91 million.