Unemployment rate drops

The jobless total is below 2.5 million for only the second time since May 2011.

Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count, the number of jobless women fell by 39,000 to 1.05 million in the three-month period ending July, compared with the previous three-month period. Their unemployment rate fell to 7.0% from the previous figure of 7.3%.

However, the number of unemployed men rose by 15,000 to 1.43 million, and their unemployment rate was up to 8.3% from 8.2%

The overall fall was 24,000 taking the unemployed total to 2.49 million. The unemployment rate was down to 7.7% from 7.8%. However, there is still some way to go to reach the 7% target set in August by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee before it will consider raising interest rates.

In August, unemployment on the other main measure — the claimant count — was down by 32,600 to 1.4 million. This only includes those people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance. The unemployment rate also fell — to 4.2% in August from 4.3% in July.

Here it was a 22,100 fall in the number of male claimants that made the biggest contribution to the fall; the number of female claimants fell by 10,500.

The male unemployment rate fell to 5.1% from 5.2%, but the women’s rate was unchanged at 3.2%.

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_325094.pdf