Benefits claims rise but employment remains high
The number of people not working increased by 77,000 in the past three months, but the employment rate remains the highest on record, new figures show.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows 74.7 per cent of people of working age are in jobs, up 0.2 per cent on the quarter but down 0.1 per cent on the year.
This is a total of 28.9 million in work, the highest figure on record, and up 272,000 on this time last year. Meanwhile, the number of jobs, 30.98 million, is also the highest ever.
However, unemployment continues to rise and now stands at 1.61 million, or 5.3 per cent of the working population. This is an increase of almost 200,000 over the last 12 months.
The number of people claiming Jobseekers allowance has also increased by more than 96,000 in the past year to 950,900, and the inactivity rate is down 0.4 per cent to 21.1 per cent, the lowest since May 1992.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Philip Hammond said the figures were “disappointing”, showing that unemployment is now at a six-year high and the claimant count has risen for 14 of the last 15 months.
“These worrying trends are more evidence that Labour’s economic policies are failing to deliver long-term prosperity for this country. Gordon Brown’s claim to have locked in economic stability for Britain now sounds very hollow indeed,” he said.
However, the government pointed to yesterday’s report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revealing UK has the highest employment rate in the G7, ahead of Canada, the US, Japan, France, Germany and Italy.
Employment and welfare minister Jim Murphy praised schemes such as Jobcentre Plus and the New Deal for Britain’s high employment, and said recent proposals to help people on lone parent and incapacity benefits back to work would help further.
“The number of jobless people who are outside the labour market continues to fall – including a fall of more than 50,000 in the number of people who are long-term sick,” he said.
“The UK continues to lead the way in reforming the welfare state, particularly through policies that help those claiming lone parent and incapacity benefits back into work.
“Not only does the UK remain at the top of the international employment league table, but the latest international research from the OECD shows this success is closely related to our active approach to helping individuals overcome the barriers that prevent them from returning to work.”
- Yesterday the ONS reported that inflation rose to 2.2 per cent in May, the first time it has gone above the government target of two per cent for seven months.
This is likely to add to calls by the retail and manufacturing sectors for an interest rate rise, coming after concerns about rising prices across the world, particularly in the US.
However, Bank of England governor Mervyn King said despite inflation remaining “volatile”, the issue was “not of serious concern yet”.
