UK unemployment total falls (April)

Mallotum_X

The number of people out of work in the UK fell by 161,000 to 2.16 million in three months to April, official figures show.

This has brought the unemployment rate down to 6.6%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The number of people in work rose by a record 345,000, to 30.5 million, most of which are in full-time employment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27791749

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in June fell by 27,400 to 1.09 million, the ONS said.

Graham_Devon

Good news on the unemployment figures.

But wage growth has slowed to just 0.7%. Whether this is related to the quality of the new jobs would be interesting.

chewmylegoff

TIMMMMBBBBEEERRRRR....oh wait a minute

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

But wage growth has slowed to just 0.7%. Whether this is related to the quality of the new jobs would be interesting.

The ONS said this was largely due to deferred bonus payments rather than the addition of 'low quality' jobs.

CLAPTON

generally good news

and with wages showing so little growth there seems to be no pressure to increase interest rates

Graham_Devon

wotsthat wrote: »

The ONS said this was largely due to deferred bonus payments rather than the addition of 'low quality' jobs.

Maybe. But not everyone gets bonuses, infact I'd guess that the minority get bonuses rather than the majority.

I'm just looking at the figures and tying in the issues supermarkets etc seem to be facing. Certainly there are more jobs, but I think it's fair, based on the evidence out there to question the quality of said jobs.

Otherwise we end up with the argument that quantity is all that matters.

danothy

Graham_Devon wrote: »

infact I'd guess

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt as assume that you're explicitly stating as a fact that you are guessing, rather than using the phrase "in fact" to try to subtly imply some sense of authority to your guess.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Maybe. But not everyone gets bonuses, infact I'd guess that the minority get bonuses rather than the majority.

I'm just looking at the figures and tying in the issues supermarkets etc seem to be facing. Certainly there are more jobs, but I think it's fair, based on the evidence out there to question the quality of said jobs.

It appears that the ONS have considered this which is why they said the fall in wage growth was due to deferred bonuses which affected the like for like comparison. If their data suggested that the fall in wage growth was due to the addition of 'low quality' jobs then why would they say it's due to deferred bonuses? Conspiracy theory?

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Otherwise we end up with the argument that quantity is all that matters.

Maybe the unemployed should all hold out for management positions.

cells

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Maybe. But not everyone gets bonuses, infact I'd guess that the minority get bonuses rather than the majority.

I'm just looking at the figures and tying in the issues supermarkets etc seem to be facing. Certainly there are more jobs, but I think it's fair, based on the evidence out there to question the quality of said jobs.

Otherwise we end up with the argument that quantity is all that matters.

Both matter but it seems logical that unemployment falls ahead of wages increasing. Once the pool of job seekers shrinks then employers will need to increase wages to allow them to steal other companies emplpyees rather than hire from the unemployed pool.

Anyway the bbc article says 447k more in work. If that is repeated for two more quarters then in just half a year unemployment would go down towards 1.5 million

Generali

The year-on-year changes are amazing and really show the strength of the recovery:

- There were 30.43 million people in work for January to March 2014, 722,000 more than a year earlier.
- There were 2.21 million unemployed people for January to March 2014, 133,000 fewer than for October to December 2013 and 309,000 fewer than a year earlier.
- The unemployment rate was 6.8% of the economically active population (those in work plus those seeking and available to work) down from 7.8% for a year earlier.
- 21.9% of people aged from 16 to 64 were economically inactive down from 22.4% for a year earlier. The inactivity rate has not been lower since October to December 1990.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_361188.pdf

It's amazing. Unemployment down 12%, employment up 2.4%.

Not sure where the pay figure comes from because the ONS release states the following:

Pay including bonuses for employees in Great Britain for January to March 2014 was 1.7% higher than a year earlier, with pay excluding bonuses 1.3% higher.

More employees than you would imagine get bonuses. I have had bonuses whilst working as a waiter and a shop assistant (not tips but bonuses relating to turnover or hitting targets).

Graham_Devon

Apologies for mentioning the wage thing. Everything is awesome.