Unemployment posts a decrease


After three months of increases, unemployment posted a fall, latest official figures show. 


In the three-month period ending December 2018, the number of unemployed people fell by 14,000 to 1.36 million against 1.38 million in the period ending September. 


The increase in numbers was enough to cut the unemployment rate from 4.1% to 4.0%. 


The lion’s share of the fall was due to the number of unemployed women decreasing by 12,000. Their unemployment rate edged down to 3.9% from 4.0%. The number of unemployed men fell by 2,000 to 746,000, cutting their unemployment rate from 4.2% to 4.1%. 


The Office for National Statistics pointed to a tighter labour market, and in the three months to January 2019, unfilled vacancies increased by 16,000 to 870,000: most were in the services sector. 


There was, however, an increase in the other main official unemployment measure — the claimant count — which only includes people receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance and those on the means-tested Universal Credit. 


In January 2019, unemployment under this count was 1,010,700 — a 14,200 increase on the revised total of 996,500 for December 2018. However, the joblessness rate remained at 2.8%.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment