Unemployment Up By 0.1%

The employment rate went down by 0.2% (43,000) on the period from October to December and January to March 2013 but up 0.8% on the year. The unemployment rate increased by 0.1% to 7.8% over the same period, but was down 0.4% on the year. The number of unemployed people increased by 15,000 to 2.52m from October to December 2012 and January to March 2013, but fell by 92,000 fewer over the year.

There were 503,000 job vacancies for February to April 2013, up 40,000 on a year earlier. In terms of duration, 18% had been unemployed for over two years but almost half (47%) had been unemployed for six months or less. The rest were between the two, six months to two years unemployed.

Total pay rose by 0.4% and regular pay by 0.8%. Both measures have not seen lower growth indicators for some years. Average total pay was £463/week and average regular pay was £444/week.