Unemployment Up To 2.49m

The unemployment rate for October to December 2010 was 7.9% or 2.49m unemployed people. Youth unemployment (18-24 year olds) was 762,000 and is at its highest since 1993.

There were 29.12 employed people and an employment rate of 70.5%. Inactivity was at 23.4% or 9.36m inactive people. The public sector employed 6.01 people in September 2010, 33,000 down from June and the number of people employed in the private sector was 23.11m unchanged from June 2010.

Actual hours worked totalled 924.6m in the three months to December, 3% up on the three months to September. Average weekly hours worked in the three months to December totalled 31.8, up 0.2 from three months to September 2010.

Total pay, which includes bonuses, went up by 1.8% on the year earlier and regular pay went up by 2.3% on the year earlier. Private sector average total pay was £447/week in December 2010 and public sector pay average weekly earnings was £467. Average regular pay in the private sector was £419/week and in the public sector £467/week. The claimant count was 1.46m up on the quarter but down on the year.

Productivity was up 1.7% in Q3 2010 compared with Q3 2009 and whole economy wage costs fell by 0.5% over the same period.In December 2010, 7,000 working days were lost because of 14 stoppages in labour disputes and over the year 365,000 days lost from 88 stoppages.

There were 30.7m workforce jobs in September 2010, up on the quarter but down over the year with most jobs increases in accomodation and food services activities and between November 2010 and January 2011 there were 500,000 vacancies (503,000 in same period 2009) and a vacancy ratio of 1.9 per 100 employee jobs. Redundancies totalled 145,000 in the three months to December 2010 unchanged on the previous three months but down 23,000 from a year earlier or 5.8 per 1000 employees.

Labour Market Statistics For August 2009

The unemployment rate for the three months to August 2009 was 7.9%, up 0.3% on the previous quarter and 2.1% on the year. There were 2.47 million people unemployed, up 88,000 on the previous quarter and 677,000 on the year. The employment rate was 72.6% for the UK and the total number of people in employment was 28.95 million, down 0.3% on the previous quarter and 1.8% on the year. A total of 904.5 hours was worked in the quarter, down 14.3 million.

There were 434,000 job vacancies in the quarter a decrease of 163,000 on last year. The inactivity rate for people of working age was 21% or 7.97 million up 50,000 on the quarter and 80,000 on the year. In the three months to August 2009 there were 233,000 redundancies which is down 68,000 on the quarter but up 85,000 on the year. A total of 8 stoppages lost 36,000 working days in August.

The number of people working in manufacturing in the three months to August 2009 was 2.63 million, the lowest figure since 1978. Manufacturing productivity decreased by 2.2% and unit wage costs increased by 3.5% compared with the same period last year. Average earnings increased by 1.9%.