Unemployment rate in UK falls to 4.1% |
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data show that the UK unemployment rate dropped from 4.5% to 4.1% between September and November. The figures reveal that unemployment fell by 184,000, with the number of people on the payroll climbing to 30 million. Analysis shows that the employment rate was estimated at 75.5%, lower than before the pandemic but higher than in the June to August period. Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, noted that the number of employees on payrolls is “now well above pre-pandemic levels.” He added that in the three months to November, the unemployment rate fell to near pre-pandemic levels while the number of people who had recently been made redundant declined to a record low. The ONS report also shows that the number of job vacancies in the three months to December rose to an all-time-high of 1.247m. While the rate of growth in vacancies has been slowing, there are now a record 4.1 openings for every 100 employee jobs. Meanwhile, weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, rose by 3.8% in the three months to November compared to the same period a year earlier. However, the figures revealed a slowdown in growth, with the rate falling short of the 4.3% recorded between August and October. While earnings rose, soaring rates of inflation mean workers suffered a real-terms cut in their pay packets. Inflation hitting a 10-year high of 5.1% in November effectively means workers have seen a 1.6% cut in pay. With pay rises being cancelled out by the cost of living for the first time in a year and a half, Martin Beck, chief economic advisor to the EY Item Club, described the situation as “an unwelcome development which is likely to worsen over the next few months.” |
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