The numbers of unemployed, the unemployment rate and the claimant count have increased. The number of vacancies has fallen along with the growth in average earnings and the number of inactive people of working age.
The unemployment rate was 7.1% in the three months to March 2009 an increase of 0.8% on previous three months and 1.8% on the year. The number of unemployed is 2.22 million an increase of 244,000 on the quarter and 592,000 on the year. The number of claimants in April was 1.51 million with an increase of 57,100 over the quarter and 710,700 on the year. The economic inactivity rate for working age people for March was 20.7%, a 0.1% decrease on the previous month and 0.2% on the year. The number of people inactive was 7.83million in the three months to March, 29,000 fewer than 3 months ago and 48,000 less than a year ago. Vacancies have fallen by 51,000 to 455,000 in the three months to April and by 232,000 on the year. There were 1.7 vacancies for every 100 employee jobs. Redundancies have risen by 27,000 on previous quarter and by 175,000 on the year to 286,000. Average earnings were lower by 0.2% in terms of annual growth in quarter to March at 3.0%.
The employment rate for working age people was 73.6% and the number of employed people 29.2million. Manufacturing has suffered with the lowest figures since records began in 1978 at 2.73 million, 160,000 fewer than last year. Productivity decreased by 8% and unit wage costs increased by 9.8% over the year and 3000 days were lost from 13 stoppages.
These figures compare well with other European countries. OECD statistics show France had 8.8% unemployment, Belgium 7.3%, Germany 7.6% and Finland 7.4%.
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