UK unemployment falls to another record low

Unemployment in Britain has fallen to another record low, official figures show today.

The jobless total fell by 67,000 to 1.38 million, the lowest since records began in 1984, Britain's Office For National Statistics said.

However, the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance increased by 900 in October to 836,700 – the second monthly rise in a row after 15 consecutive monthly falls.

There was a rise in the level of economic inactivity, up by 35,000 on the quarter to 7.91 million.

The total includes people who have taken early retirement, long term sick, students, and those looking after family.

None of these groups is looking for a job.

Average earnings in the year to September increased by 3.7%, down 0.1 percentage points from the seasonally adjusted August rates.

Excluding bonuses, the rate was 4.3%, unchanged from the August rate.

The unemployment rate was 4.6% for the three months to September 2004 the lowest rate since 1984 and down 0.2 percentage points on the previous three months.

Jobs in the manufacturing sector continued to fall, with manufacturing employee jobs dropping by 2.4% or 83,000 jobs to 3.35 million in the three months to September, compared with the same period a year ago.

This is the lowest level since comparable records began in 1978.

Most sub sectors in manufacturing showed falls over the year, with the largest being in textiles, leather and clothing.

In the three months to September, 134,000 people were made redundant, down 11,000 from the previous three months and down 24,000 compared with the previous year.

There were 640,000 job vacancies on average in the three months to October, down 9,900 from the previous three months, but up 52,300 against the previous year. This is the first quarterly fall in vacancies since August 2003.