UK unemployment up but increases slows
The UK economy has received a boost today with hopes that a recovery is well underway after the Office for National Statistics revealed that UK unemployment increased 88,000 to 2.47 million in the three months to August, taking the unemployment rate from 7.6% to 7.9%.
Today’s figure was not as bad as expected and the rise in the number of unemployed was the lowest since July 2008.
In the meantime, the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance in September grew by 20,800 to 1.63 million – this represents the smallest rise since May 2008.
Fears for young unemployed people continues grow as those aged between 16 and 24 looking for a job totalled 946,000 in the three months to August – however this was down slightly from the previous month.
Commenting on today’s figures, Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics, said: “The latest UK labour market data looks pretty encouraging. For a start, unemployment is rising at a much slower rate than before.”
Philip Shaw, Investec chief economist, also described today’s figures as “more encouraging than we had hoped”.
“It does suggest that the pace of deterioration in the jobs market is easing quite sharply which is encouraging for the outlook for a sustainable recovery,” said Mr Shaw.
However, despite the ‘encouraging’ figures, earlier this week the British Chambers of Commerce cast doubt over the UK’s exit from recession in the third quarter.
The leading business group said while business confidence has strengthened, the economy was still “frail”.
Recently, there has been mixed economic data in the UK, which suggests that the economy may not exit recession in the third quarter – official data due on 23 October will reveal if the UK has emerged from recession.
If not, it will be the first time the UK has endured six consecutive quarters without growth.
Visited 1490 times, 1 so far today
Comments (0)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
There are no comments yet. Why not be the first to speak your mind.