15/10/2003

Employment falls by 9,000 over last quarter

The employment rate has fallen by 9,000 over the last quarter, with unemployment remaining unchanged, according to the latest labour market research.

The labour market trend assessments this month show that the employment rate is levelling off, while the unemployment rate "may still be falling slightly".

The number of people in employment fell 9,000 over the previous three months to 27.9 million or 74.5% of the working population, down from 74.7%.

The number of men in employment rose 4,000 to 15.06 million, and the number of women in employment fell 12,000 to 12.85 million, the survey revealed. There was also a rise of 13,000 full-time workers to 20.7 million, but a fall of 21,000 part-time workers to 7.2 million.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5% - or 5.5% for men and 4.4% for women. Overall, unemployment now stands at 1.48 million.

The redundancy rate of 6.3 per 1,000 employees was down from 7.1 per 1,000 employees over the year. There were falls in the redundancy rate for all industries, except manufacturing, where the rate rose from 14.3 to 14.5 per 1,000 employees in the same period.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Andrew Smith said that UK unemployment is now at its lowest level since the mid-1970s.

"It is this sound economic management, together with programmes such as the New Deal, that have virtually eradicated long-term youth unemployment and cut overall long-term unemployment by three quarters since 1997," he said.

(gmcg)

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