Joblessness lowest since 1974


Unemployment appeared to fall to its lowest rate since 1974 in the May-July period, and now stands at 3.6%. However, that was attributed to an increase in the economic inactivity rate (to 21.7%) driven by the number of students and those who are long-term sick.


Statistics on employment continue to reflect changes in the labour market. The employment rate, which includes self-employed workers (down from their 2019 peak of five million to just over 4.2 million) remains below pre-pandemic rates. 


Total actual weekly hours worked also decreased slightly, having previously returned to levels similar to those before the pandemic. 


But it’s a different story for payrolled employees, whose number keeps on rising: this was up by 71,000 in August and by 718,000 compared with February 2020. 


However, average weekly earnings are still falling relative to inflation, especially for those working in the public sector.


The number of job vacancies has tailed off slightly but still stands at 1.266 million (with the number of unemployed people per vacancy still at an historical low). 


The redundancy rate, which peaked at over 14% last autumn, has dropped to around 2%.