Pound adds to gains as unemployment falls

Unemployment fell again in the three months to May but there is still concern that it could begin to rise next year.

Markets

Other markets

Market Data Notice

More market charts

by Deborah Hyde on Jul 14, 2010 at 10:28

The pound continued to recover on Wednesday morning after data showing new falls in unemployment.

The pound was one cent stronger against the dollar at $1.5244 and against the euro at €1.1994, having made strong gains after Tuesday's inflation report.

The number of unemployed people fell by 34,000 over the three months to May to reach 2.47 million and the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (also known as the claimant count) in June fell by 20,800.

The number of inactive people of working age fell to 8.1 million. That was the first quarterly fall in the number of people who are out of work but not claiming benefit since the three months to March 2009.

Most categories of inactivity including students fell over the period but the number of people in the 'long-term sick' category increased by 54,000 to 2.07 million.

Vicky Redwood, senior economist at Capital Economics, said: 'The rise in employment was driven by self-employed and part-time workers, suggesting that employers are still nervous about the outlook.'

Unemployment amongst 18-24 year olds fell by 19,000 to 707,000 in the three months to May 2010, suggesting the scorched earth forecasts that youth unemployment could peak above one million may have been too pessimistic.

With widespread concern that young people who become unemployed face a future out of work, that is welcome news.

There was though some bad news as the number of people unemployed for more than twelve months increased by 61,000 to 787,000, the highest figure since the three months to March 1997.

This is a worry for the government as the long-term unemployed find it harder to get back into work than the newly unemployed.

News that public sector employment fell 7,000 to 6.09 million and the number of people in private sector employment rose to 22.78 million may provide some cheer as the government hopes to rebalance the economy away from the public sector.

But many think the positive news today may be short-lived.

Email a friend

Email me when someone comments on this article Print

4 comments so far. Why not have your say?

Why do successive governments persist with this distortion of the real facts about unemployment?

After a huge amount of lies and deceit by Labour can we now have the truth? Who are the 6,000,000 people who are deemed "economically inactive" in addition to the official figures. If we've got 8,000,000 unemployed let's stop fooling ourselves and admit it.

report this

Surely anyone of working age and able to work who is not working is unemployed?

report this

6 Million, plus all the others that don't count like those on DLA, single mothers (yet) for instance. Perhaps it would be more prudent to ask how many people out of the population of a working age are actually working, then take this as a percentage of the population. The concept of being unemployed is a notional one. It is a question of belief, perspective and means. Many people are not working or claiming benefits, because they are disillusioned with the system. Just look at how many people didn't vote in the last election. The current government does not have any substancial backing by the people. Is it any wonder when you look at the past records of them all. It seems each succesive government merely makes a bigger mess of things than the last. Local clubs can't even prepare food now without conforming to new regulations, practices that have gone on for years legislated to oblivion.

We continue to follow the economic path that Japan followed which has left them with 20 years of economic stagnation. Our country and many others are in worse financial states than after World War 2. You have to work pretty hard to screw things up this badly, yet they managed it. People wonder if this might be a double dip recession and no it isn't , its the same one! We never really came out of it, it was just stimulus that gave the illusion of recovery. This at the cost of far greater future debt. Still, screw the people so long as the banks are OK right? Have any steps been taken to separate the retail from the investment banks, erm no. So what have we got for out Billions of taxpayers money? Nada! We still have the same system. We have transferred the bank debt to Sovereign debt. What happens when the banks go to the wall this time around? Beware the fall good investor. The cure for a Depression is a depression, fight it and all you do is prolong it. The more you meddle, the worse it gets.

report this

Harry

Jul 14, 2010 at 14:13

this meme about how unemployment figures are wrong because they don't count economically inactive people is getting very tiresome. if you don't like it, how about get the calculator out and add the two numbers together rather than whining about it on citywire.

report this

Please sign in here or register here to comment. It is free to register and only takes a minute or two.