Unemployment on the rise again

Unemployment rose for a second successive month.

Under Labour Force Survey count, unemployment increased by 25,000 to 1.85 million in the three months to June, compared with the previous three-month period.

The unemployment rate was up to 5.6% from 5.5%.

Unemployed women numbers increased by 17,000 to 838,000 and their unemployment rate was up to 5.5% from 5.3%.

Male unemployed numbers increased by 8,000 to 1.01 million and their unemployment rate was up to 5.8% from 5.7%

There was a fall in the claimant count, which now includes those on Universal Credit as well as Jobseeker’s Allowance. There were 792,400 claimants in July — an increase of 4,900 on the revised figure for June.The joblessness rate was, however, unchanged at 2.3%.

In July, there were 512,500 men claiming unemployment related benefits — a 700 fall on June — but their joblessness rate remained at 2.8%.

The number of women claimants fell by 4,200 to 279,900, which was sufficient to cut their joblessness rate from 1.8% to 1.7%.

The youth unemployment rate was 16.0%, well above the 2008 pre-downturn low of 13.8%.

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_412021.pdf