Home > All articles UK Employment Reaches Yet Another Record High Despite the worsening economic news, the UK employment figures continue to defy gravity and have reached yet another record high. According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, the total number of people in work, the employment rate and the total number of vacancies are all up. Whilst the number of unemployed, the claimant count, the unemployment rate, the economic inactivity rate and the redundancy rate were all down. Details of the latest figures: In the 3 months to February 2008.:- The total number of people in work increased by 152,000 to 29.51 million – the highest figure since comparable records began in 1971. Over the past year it has risen by 456,000. The working age employment rate rose to 74.9% - up 0.6% over the past year. The number of unemployed people fell by 39,000 to 1.61 million –and was down by 90,000 over the past year. The unemployment rate was 5.2%, down by 0.1% over the previous 3 months and 0.4% over the previous year. The number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance benefit in March was 794,300 (the lowest figure since 1975) – down 1,200 on the revised figure for February and 110,600 on the year. The economic inactivity rate for people of working age was 20.9% down by 0.1% over the past 3 months and 0.3% on the year. The number of economically inactive people of working age fell by 36,000 to 7.87 million and down by 71,000 over the past year. In the 3 months to February 2008, 106,000 people were made redundant in the 3 months before their interview. This was down 17,000 from the previous quarter and down 39,000 on the year. The number of job vacancies went up by 7,300 in the 3 months to January to 677,400 - up 72,000 on the same period last year. Commenting on the figures, Stephen Timms, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform said: "More people now than ever are in work, while unemployment continues to fall - showing strong performance in spite of the current global economic uncertainties.” And he pointed in particular to an increase of 214,000 in the number of people aged 50 plus who are in work over the past 12 months – which accounted for just under half the total increase. "The economy is benefiting from the skill and expertise that people aged over 50 are bringing to the workforce and we are continuing to ensure that our welfare reforms provide greater opportunities for people across all walks of life to get into work if they want to," he said. More info : click here     By Taen Date 19-04-2008 Print this article | Send to a friend | React to this article