Posted on 19 November 2010

Unemployment falls in mixed picture for economy

Read time: 2 minutes

The new unemployment figures have shown a slight fall with the jobless total dropping 9,000 in the three months to September, though the number of unemployed women is at its highest level since 1988.

The Office for National Statistics said that the overall unemployment rate was constant at 7.7% and despite an overall rise in employment, by 167,000 over the three months, the figures are seen as evidence that the jobs market remains sluggish after the recession.

Part of the reason for that is that most of the new jobs created are only part-time and Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight said that businesses are still concerned about the long-term economic forecasts and are wary about employing full-time workers as a result.

Despite the slight fall in the overall jobless total, some of the other figures revealed by the ONS tend to confirm the analysts view, that a rise in unemployment is possible as the government spending cuts begin to have an effect. The number of job vacancies fell in the three months to September by 27,000 and the number of long-term unemployed, those who have been out of work for six months or longer, has grown by 21,000 to reach 1.18m.

The unemployment figures also showed regional variations with the Yorkshire and the Humber region showing a fall of 8,000 but other regions including the Midlands, the South East and the North West all seeing unemployment rise.

James Knightley of ING said that the news that employment was at its highest level since February 2009 was welcome but said that the economy could well weaken over the coming months due to the spending cuts, limits on bank lending and the failure of earnings to keep up with 3% inflation.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11773114