(ONS Press Release) – For January to March 2012:
• The employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 was 70.5 per cent, up 0.2 on the quarter. There were 29.23 million people in employment aged 16 and over, up 105,000 on the quarter. The quarterly increase in employment was entirely due to more part-time workers.
• The unemployment rate was 8.2 per cent of the economically active population, down 0.2 on the quarter. There were 2.63 million unemployed people, down 45,000 on the quarter.
• The inactivity rate for those aged from 16 to 64 was 23.0 per cent, down 0.1 on the quarter. There were 9.25 million economically inactive people aged from 16 to 64, down 35,000 on the quarter.
Source:
The fall in unemployment is based on p/t working & self-employment
There is reason to be cautious writes Tony Dolphin.
The labour market is not improving because firms are recruiting more full-time employees. It is improving because more people are taking part-time work, reluctantly, and because more people are setting themselves up in self-employment, possibly also reluctantly.
The 105,000 increase in employment in the latest quarter was more than accounted for by part-time workers. The number in full-time employment fell by 13,000. We know many of these part-time workers are unhappy because the Office for National Statistics asks part-time workers if they would prefer to be working full-time and 1,418,000 said ‘yes’ in the latest three months – the highest number since comparable records began in 1992.
Looking at the numbers differently, 90,000 of the 105,000 increase in employment in the last quarter is due to an increase in self-employment. Unfortunately, the ONS does not ask the self-employed if they would rather be working as an employee – but it is a fair bet that some of the recent increase reflects people who would rather not be self-employed but cannot find a company to employ them.
The big picture over this period is that total employment in the UK has fallen by just under 300,000. But the number of full-time employees is down by 800,000, while the number of part-time employees and the number of part-time self-employed people are both up by about 250,000. There has also been an increase over this period of over 700,000 in the number of people working part-time who say they are doing so because they want a full-time job.
The continuing legacy of the recession, therefore, is a labour market characterised by companies that are reluctant to take on more full-time employees and workers who are reluctantly working part-time – either for companies or for themselves.
via The fall in unemployment is based on p/t working & self-employment > Article :: IPPR.
Surprise fall in UK unemployment writes the Financial Times.
A surprise drop in unemployment has given Britain a glimmer of hope in the face of chill winds from the eurozone, but analysts warned the jobless total may have further to rise unless the economy recovers faster.
via Surprise fall in UK unemployment – FT.com.
BBC’s Report
Employment Minister Chris Grayling said overall the figures were a “welcome step in the right direction”.
“For a number of months now, employment has been growing and this is starting to feed through into improving unemployment figures.
“However, we still face significant international uncertainty so we need to hold firm on our current economic strategy and continue to do everything we can to ensure unemployment continues to fall.”
Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King also said that the latest figures were consistent with a gradual recovery in the UK economy, while pointing to the huge risk to the UK economy posed by the crisis in the eurozone, the UK’s biggest trading partner.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said it was “really worrying to see the soaring long term costs as the number of long term unemployed surges towards the 1 million mark – the highest since the Tories were in Government last time”.
Source: bbc.co.uk
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