Drop in unemployment continues

Unemployment has fallen on both official counts. Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count it was down by 45,000 to 1.65 million in the second quarter of 2007 compared with the previous quarter.

The LFS count is the government’s preferred measure and includes people not eligible for benefits. The unemployment rate was 5.4%.

There were 946,000 unemployed men under the count — a 5.7% rate — and 709,000 women — a 5.0% rate.

Unemployment under the claimant count, which only includes those drawing Jobseeker’s Allowance, fell for the tenth successive month to stand at 855,300 in July — an 8,500 fall on the revised figure for June.

The unemployment rate under this count was down to 2.6%. The number of unemployed men on benefit was down to 624,700 — a 3.6% rate — and the number of unemployed women was down to 230,600 — a 1.5% rate.

Manufacturing lost 29,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2007 compared to a year earlier, and employment in the sector was down to 2.96 million.

The good news on the manufacturing front is that over 430 jobs have been saved at the Burton’s Foods biscuit factory, Moreton, which was threatened with full closure, following an agreement between the firm and general union Unite.