Employment Figures Up

Small Business News

Unemployment down, jobs up.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance (formerly know as unemployment benefit) has continued to drop and now stands at 807,700; the lowest level since 1975.

The number of claimants is down by 6,400 over the previous month and sees a fall in numbers of 131,400 over the year meaning that the figure has fallen for 15 consecutive months.

In addition the trend in the number of jobs available has kept increasing.

Despite an expected slowdown in the economy's growth, these figures show a robust job market.

Employment rates for adults of working age sits at 74.7% with 29.6 million people in employment.

The unemployment rate (for December) is 5.3%