Unemployment Down To 7.7%

The unemployment rate fell by 0.1% from February to April and by 0.4% on last year to 7.7%. The were 2.49m people unemployed aged over 16, 24,000 down on quarter and 105,000 down from last year.

In June 2013, 5.67m people worked in the public sector, down 34,000 from March and 104,000 from last year while 24.17m people worked in the private sector, up 114,000 from March and 380,000 from last year.The number of employees increased by 98,000 to reach 25.39m. The number of self-employed fell by 27,000 to 4.17m.

In July average total pay was £474/week and total regular pay was £447/week. This means that total pay rose by 1.1% and regular pay by 1%. On the annual comparison between May and July 2012 and 2013 private sector total pay rose by 1.4% and regular 1.2% and public sector total pay rose 0.5% and regular 0.7%.

Regionally, the highest unemployment rates were found in the North East (10.4%) and the lowest in the South East (5.8%). It was the same for the claimant count with 6.8% in NE and 2.5% in SE.