Unemployment down 79,000 to 1.77m

Unemployment decreased by 79,000 in the three months to August 2015

 

Unemployment decreased by 79,000 in the three months to August 2015 to 1.77 million, with the unemployment rate now at 5.4 per cent, today’s labour market statistics reveal.

The main points for June to August 2015 are:

  • There were 31.12 million people in work, 140,000 more than for March to May 2015 and 359,000 more than for a year earlier.
  • There were 22.77 million people working full-time, 291,000 more than for a year earlier. There were 8.35 million people working part-time, 68,000 more than for a year earlier.
  • The employment rate (the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 who were in work) was 73.6%, the highest since comparable records began in 1971.
  • There were 1.77 million unemployed people (people not in work but seeking and available to work), 79,000 fewer than for March to May 2015 and 198,000 fewer than for a year earlier.
  • There were 970,000 unemployed men, 125,000 fewer than for a year earlier. There were 803,000 unemployed women, 73,000 fewer than for a year earlier.
  • The unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, lower than for March to May 2015 (5.6%) and for a year earlier (6.0%). It has not been lower since March to May 2008. The unemployment rate is the proportion of the labour force (those in work plus those unemployed) who were unemployed.
  • There were 9.01 million people aged from 16 to 64 who were economically inactive (not working and not seeking or available to work), little changed compared with March to May 2015 but down slightly (13,000) compared with a year earlier.
  • The inactivity rate (the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 who were economically inactive) was 22.1%, little changed compared with March to May 2015 and with a year earlier.
  • Comparing June to August 2015 with a year earlier, pay for employees in Great Britain increased by 3.0% including bonuses and by 2.8% excluding bonuses.
Get all the tables for this publication in the data section of this publication .

7 Responses to “Unemployment down 79,000 to 1.77m”

  1. Selohesra

    BBC giving airtime to Danny Blanchflower this morning – one of their favourite economists who predicted coalition policies would drive unemployment over 5 million. At what point do these guys finally lose any credibility and stop being invited to spout their rubbish on BBC?

  2. I'm very cross about this.

    A Labour government led by Corbyn would soon put a stop to this trend.

  3. PHIL THOMAS

    Excellent news……………Thank God Gapes, Corbyn and Super Mac are not running the Country or we would be like North Korea.

  4. Harold

    Great news unemployment down, I would suggest a lot of the increase is people coming from other EU countries to work here, which of course the right object to, which begs the question if they were not coming who would do the work as I assume these are real jobs? Secondly they cannot become to claim benefits? On the down side a lot of these jobs will be low pay short hours or zero hour contracts or self employed but again or relatively low earnings. This is where once Corbyn is PM he will have his work cut out getting wages up across the board and in particular for the lowest paid.

    The increase in employment shows the resilience of the British work force which despite the Governments attempts to crash the economy people want to work, (Daily Mail and Sun please note) the growing trend has been upwards since the early 70’s and as long as our population grows should continue. One question does arrive what would withdraw from the EU mean to these figures?

  5. Harold

    Lowest level since 2008, which Party was in Government then?

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