18/05/2005

Jobs figures show increase in employment and fall in unemployment

The latest UK jobs figures have shown an increase in employment numbers and a fall in unemployment, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed today.

The employment rate for people of working age was 74.9% for the three months ending in March 2005, unchanged from the previous quarter and on the year.

The number of people in employment increased by 87,000 over the quarter and by 183,000 over the year, to reach 28.61 million.

The overall unemployment rate was 4.7%, down 0.1 percentage point both from the previous quarter and over the year. The number of unemployed people fell by 15,000 over the quarter and by 23,000 over the year, to reach 1.40 million.

Meanwhile, the average number of job vacancies for the three months to April 2005 was 628,900. This was down 26,100 on the previous quarter but up 5,600 over the year.

The redundancy rate for the three months to March 2005 was 5.4 per 1,000 employees, down 0.5% on the previous quarter.

(MB/SP)

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