UK unemployment falls to 2.51 million

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14 November 2012 Last updated at 05:05 ET

UK unemployment falls to 2.51 million

job centre office generic Youth unemployment has fallen

The number of people out of work in the UK has fallen to its lowest total for more than a year.

Unemployment fell by 49,000 to 2.51 million in the three months to September, taking the jobless rate to 7.8% from 7.9%.

The Office for National Statistics said that almost all the 49,000 fall was due to a decline in youth unemployment.

But the ONS said that the claimant count rose by 10,100 last month to 1.58 million, the highest since July.

The unemployment total is now 110,000 lower than for the July-September quarter last year, the ONS said. The number of people in work increased by 100,000 in the latest quarter to just under 30 million, a rise of more than half a million over the past year.

Other figures from the ONS showed that long-term unemployment - those out of work for over a year - increased by 12,000 in the quarter to September to 894,000, while 443,000 people have been jobless for more than two years, up by 21,000.

Part-time employment increased by 49,000 to 8.1 million, close to a record high, while there were 51,000 more people in full-time jobs, at 21.4 million. Unemployment among women fell by 10,000 to 1.09 million, and by 39,000 among men to 1.43 million.

Although the latest fall in unemployment was due to a reduction in youth unemployment, the ONS said that the jobless rate among 16 to 24-year-olds was still 963,000. This figure includes 315,000 unemployed young people in full-time education, the ONS said.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said the figures suggest "signs of some softening in the labour market's recent impressive resilience".

He said: "The most obvious sign of softening in the labour market came in a 10,100 rise in the number of claimant count unemployed, which was the largest increase for 13 months and followed a small rise of 800 in September.

"Even if employment in the private sector rises modestly rather than falls, it will likely not be enough to offset job cuts in the public sector as well as cater for an increasing labour force."


Source : bbc[dot]co[dot]uk Read More

US economy adds 171,000 new jobs

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2 November 2012 Last updated at 08:51 ET

US economy adds 171,000 new jobs

Sign advertising jobs in a cafe in New York October's jobs report is particularly important ahead of Tuesday's presidential election

The US economy added 171,000 new jobs in October, which was much more than had been expected.

But the official figures from the Labor Department showed that the unemployment rate still rose to 7.9%, having fallen to 7.8% in September, as more workers resumed the search for jobs.

Only people who are currently looking for a job count as unemployed.

Unemployment is one of the key issues ahead of Tuesday's presidential election.

The figures were the last major set of economic data scheduled before the election and the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, has made the state of the jobs market one of the central planks of his campaign.

The number of jobs created in the previous two months was revised upwards, with an extra 34,000 jobs added in September and 50,000 added in August.

Despite the new jobs, Barack Obama will still go to the polls with the highest rate of unemployment of any president seeking re-election since Franklin D Roosevelt.

The Labor Department said in its release that Hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast of the US on 29 October, had had "no discernable effect" on the employment data.

The number of involuntary part-time workers, who would prefer to be working full-time, fell 269,000 to 8.3 million, having risen by 582,000 in September.

Kathy Jones from Charles Schwab said they were good numbers, but warned that: "We're way short of where we need to be to bring down the unemployment rate to where the Federal Reserve would like to see, closer to 6% than 8%."

"We would need to see twice as many jobs as we're seeing, but the direction has improved."


Source : bbc[dot]co[dot]uk Read More
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