Unemployment data shows jobs recovery is coming to an end

Employment was still rising in the three months to July but a surprise rise in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit in August suggests unemployment is already on the rise again.

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by Deborah Hyde on Sep 15, 2010 at 10:24

A rise in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit in August suggests the recovery in the jobs markets has already run out of steam even before far-reaching cuts in the public sector begin.

The claimant count rose 2,300 in August, having fallen 1,000 in July and defying expectations that the figure would remain unchanged.

The unemployment rate was 7.8% with 2.47 million unemployed people.

Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight, said: 'The labour market data are both disappointing and worrying overall, fuelling fears that the improvement in the labour market is coming to an end as companies' fears mount over the strength and sustainability of the upturn.'

He pointed out that the claimant count fell around 30,000 in May and April.

The employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 for the three months to July 2010 was 70.7%, up 0.4% from the three months between April and June - the largest quarterly increase in the employment rate since the three months to May 1989.

The number of people in fulltime employment rose 121,000 to 21.2 million in the three months to July 2010 and the number of people in part-time employment increased 166,000 to 7.9 million.

The data from the Office for National Statistics showed the inactivity rate was 23.2% and there were 9.26 million people aged 16 to 64 not in work.

The data also shows public sector employment fell by 20,000 in the second quarter.

Archer said: 'Major job losses are on the way in the public sector as the government slashes spending, and we doubt that the private sector will be able to fully compensate for this. Indeed, we suspect that firms will become increasingly cautious in their employment plans, reflecting their concerns that intensified fiscal squeeze will hold back growth.'

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2 comments so far. Why not have your say?

So let me see then!

Unemployment rose.

Employment rose!

So where did the significant increase in the employable population come from?

School leavers outnumbering retirerees ! Not according to the demographics!

Net Immigration? Not according to the Home office statistics!

Could it be people now seeking employment who were out of the job market!

Perhaps early retired folk like me who now find it harder to eke out their pension?

Answers on a postcard pleas.

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snoekie

Sep 15, 2010 at 17:46

James, even your state pension is possibly at risk.

The figures in this article do not make sense. Added to the 2.4 7 million you will have to add something like 6 million for the permanently disabled, the partially disabled, the skivers on disablement and goodness knows how many others on some temporary arrangement which takes them off the unemployment register. Perhaps another million.

That makes one in five drawing some sort of benefit which the other four have to support.

And what about those not in a position to seek employment, mothers, local and foreign, drawing benefit, increasing according to the size of the family and new additions.

One can only hope that IDS and FF have had a hard look at the American system and perhaps the Australian system and there is a real crack down on the illegals, with a repeal of HRA. It is all very well for these people to have their rights, but what about our rights, and those that have been paying for many years, not to have to pay for the right to breed, at our expense.

And then there are those clowns at the conference, the bigwigs, who do not want their unions income to be affected by redundancies which will inevitably curtail their salaries, if not a reduction, as well as in the benefits they receive and a reduction in the number of staff employed by the unions. They bleat about the bankers, and Mervyn King gives them a sop, it is all the bankers fault. Here I would call to mind the name of one of the contenders for the leadership of the Labour Party whose name sums it up all, Balls, even balderdash!

Try blaming the last lot for using the public purse to squander money and 'decrease' unemployment by taking them off the dole and paying them a lot more than would be received in benefit and increase the pension liability in the future.

Insane economics, when most don't produce anything of value, or even do anything of use, except wear our furniture with their rear ends and use up resources that were better left in our pockets.

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