Manufacturing Jobs Hit All Time Low

The number of people unemployed has risen to 2.38m up 281,000 in the three months to May giving an unemployment rate of 7.6% and 753,000 on the year. The claimant count has increased to 1.56m. The number of inactive people of working age has increased and the economic inactivity rate has risen to 20.9% in the quarter. There are fewer vacancies. The number of vacancies was 429,000 down 35,000 on the quarter and 222,000 on the year. The number of redundancies was up 31,000 to 301,000 in the three months to May and 182,000 on the year. There were 31.19m workforce jobs in March. That is 108,000 down on the quarter and 455,000 fewer over the year. The number of manufacturing jobs in the quarter was 2.68m, the lowest figure since 1978 and is 201,000 or 7% down on the year. There were a total of 918.8m hours worked in the quarter to May and the average weekly hours worked was unchanged at 31.7. Average earnings annual growth rate for the whole economy excluding bonuses was 2.6% and including bonuses was 2.3%.