Joblessness continues to fall

Unemployment continued its downward path in early 2015.

Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count, unemployment fell by 35,000 to 1.83 million in the first quarter of the year, compared with the last quarter of 2014. The unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7%, the Office for National Statistics said.

The fall was all but down to a fall in male unemployment. The number of unemployed men was down by 34,000 to 1.01 million and their unemployment rate was down to 5.7% from 6.0%.

Unemployment among women fell by 2,000 to 821,000 and their rate was down to 5.3% from 5.4%.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that underemployment has “barely recovered”. Over a third of those in temporary jobs (34.9%) wanted a permanent job, and over one in six part-time workers (16.1%) wanted a full-time job, but could not get one.

Unemployment under the claimant count was down by 12,600 to 763,800 in April. This count only includes those people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance. The joblessness rate was unchanged at 2.3%.

Male claimant numbers fell by 7,100 to 487,000 and their joblessness rate was down to 2.7% from 2.8%.Women claimants’ numbers fell by 5,500 to 276,800, but that was not enough to cut their joblessness rate which remained unchanged at 1.8%.

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/may-2015/statistical-bulletin.html