UK unemployment falls by 57,000, ONS report reveals

Unemployment across the UK has fallen by 57,000 since December, which means that a total of 2.51 million, or 7.8% of the labour force, are now out of work, the latest report from the ONS has revealed.

Plus, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit dropped by 21,200 in June, the fastest rate of decline in three years.

Unfortunately, the data provided by the ONS also brought forth some bad news. Thus, the number of economically inactive people (namely, those who are not actively looking for work), increased by 87,000 to reach 9 million, while long-term unemployment has also reached a 17-year high, as the number of people who have been out of work for more than a year increased by 32,000 to reach 915,000.

Furthermore, wages are still seriously lagging behind inflation, the average weekly earnings (excluding bonus payments) over March to May being just 1% higher than the same time last year, while the consumer price index was running at 2.9%.

Nevertheless, the economic pick-up, driven largely by the private sector, has also led to a superior level of confidence in terms of future job prospects. In fact, the number of people working in the private sector rose 544,000 in the year to March 2013, while public sector employees fell by 112,000 over the same period.

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