Unemployment Rates At Lowest In Over 40 Years
The government’s latest figures unveiled the highest number of people in employment since 1971 with the unemployment figure for the three months to January reducing by 63,000 bringing the total to 2.33 million.
Britain’s unemployment rate was very stable in the three months to January, but the number of individual’s claiming unemployment benefits; such as Jobseekers Allowance, fell more than expected and earnings showed signed of picking up.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that the number of individual’s claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance last month had fallen by 34,600 to 1.17 million with the jobless rate dropping to 7.2% which hit a new record of just under 30.2 million in employment – an increase of 429,000 over the last year; this figure has been greatly helped by a rise in self employment and has become the highest figure since records begun in 1971.
The number of unemployed 16-24 year olds stood at 912,000 in the three months to January – a drop of 29,000 which is the lowest level since 2011.
The ONS also found that average earnings increased by 1.4% in the year to January – up 0.2% from December 2013. In cash terms; average weekly earnings (excluding bonuses) were £451 in January 2014 (before taxes and other deductions from gross pay) up from £443 in 2013.
