Hodge denies labour market slowdown
Employment minister Margaret Hodge has denied that today’s labour market statistics showing a slight fall in employment indicate the economy is weakening.
According to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), working age employment fell 0.3 percentage points to 74.7 per cent in the last quarter, while the number of people in employment fell by 72,000 in the same period.
The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.8 per cent, although the number of employed people fell by 4,000 over the quarter. There are now 28.6 million people in work, with unemployment rates the best since 1975.
Ms Hodge said that this “mixed picture” failed to take account of the recent strong increases in employment, adding that compared to last year, more people are working and fewer are claiming out-of-work benefits.
“Vacancies are high, redundancies remain very low and new unemployment claims are roughly flat. These are not figures usually associated with a weakening economy,” she said.
Ms Hodge noted that there are currently 184,000 more people in work than this time last year, while the number of people claiming lone parent and incapacity benefits has fallen by more than 60,000 in the same period.
However, the Liberal Democrats said the 8,800 rise in the claimant count over the last month – the fifth consecutive monthly increase – confirmed the labour market was losing some momentum.
“These worrying developments are likely to have knock-on effects on the already fragile housing market, as people get into arrears on mortgage payments .The UK economy may still be growing but the chancellor’s complacency is starting to become worrying,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives seized on the figures showing that the number of young people not in work, education or training now tops one million – its highest level since Labour took office.
“At a time when we need to get more young people to stay in work and start a pension, today’s figures make depressing reading,” said Sir Malcolm Rifkind, shadow secretary for work and pensions.
He added: “It is a sad fact that in the last year alone, 27,000 more under-25s have joined the dole queue. We need to give our young people much better help to get the skills they need, not only to find a job, but to stay in work and build up a decent pension.”
