By Richard Johnstone | 13 November 2013
Unemployment fell below 2.5 million in the three months between July and September, figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed today.
The total number of people unemployed stood at 2.47 million over the three months, down 48,000 from the period from April to June. This is the lowest number of people out of work since the three-month period between February and April 2011.
In percentage terms, the unemployment rate was 7.6% of the economically active population over the three months, down 0.2 percentage points from the preceding period. By this measure, unemployment has not been lower since the three months between February and April 2009.
Overall, the total number of people in work stands at 29.9 million, the highest level since records began in 1971.
Responding to the figures, employment minister Esther McVey said the government was delivering on its pledge to rebalance the economy, promote job creation, and support people to get off benefits and into work.
‘Today’s figures show that the number of people in work has risen by more than a million under this government, with the growth driven by full-time private sector jobs.
‘At the same time, the number of people claiming the main out-of-work benefits has fallen by almost half a million. There’s more work to do, and we are not complacent, but these are all very positive signs.’
However, trade union Unison said the number of people working part-time because they could not find full-time employment was also at the highest level since records began.
‘A staggering half of the workforce now work part-time, including a third of men, and this is not a statistic to be proud of. Part-time work means part-time wages and this is not a good omen for getting the economy back on its feet,’ the statement added.
The Institute for Public Policy Research highlighted that youth unemployment, at 21%, remained much higher than for the overall population, and warned the link between economic growth and lower youth unemployment was broken. Nearly a third of the young people out of work have been looking for jobs for more than a year, said IPPR research fellow Spencer Thompson.
He highlighted that the labour market position of young people started to deteriorate many years before the financial crisis and subsequent recession. Therefore, a return to economic growth will not, on its own, bring about a sustained fall in youth unemployment.
‘The relationship between youth unemployment and gross domestic product growth was already weak and has become weaker since the recession,’ he said.
‘Tinkering with crisis-response policies like the Work Programme and the Youth Contract is not enough. Nor, on its own, is reforming the education system. We need to create much stronger links between education policy and labour market policy, particularly for those that do not go from school or college into university education.’
