The People Bulletin

New figures from the Office of National Statistics published on 22 April 2009 do little to change the picture of labour supply outstripping demand. Jobless benefits claimants rose by 73,700 in March to 1.46 million and the unemployment rate was 6.7% for the three months to February, up from 6.1% from the previous quarter.

There were 462,000 job vacancies in the three months to March 2009, down 68,000 over the previous quarter and down 230,000 over the year. Most sectors have shown falls in vacancies over the quarter with the largest falls occurring in distribution, hotels and restaurants (down 26,000) and finance and business services (down 19,000).

The annual rate of growth in average earnings including bonuses was 0.1% in the three months to February 2009, having plummeted from 1.7% in the three months to January. This fall in the growth rate was mainly due to lower bonuses in the financial sector. The annual picture doesn’t look much more cheerful, with corresponding annual growth (excluding bonuses) at 3.2% in the three months to February 2009; down 3.5% in the three months to January.

Commenting on last month’s figures (which were not as bad as these ones!), Dr John Philpott, Chief Economist at the CIPD observed ‘These are the most doleful set of UK labour market figures since the start of the recession. Not only is unemployment back to where it was in 1997 but it now looks as though we are heading towards the worst outlook for jobs in the UK’s post-war history. Full employment is not just slipping away, it is sinking without trace.’

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=12