Joblessness resumes its decline

Unemployment has fallen on both official counts.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS), which includes people not eligible for benefits, showed the jobless figure falling by 29,000 to 1.39 million in the three months to October.

And it showed the unemployment rate declining on the previous quarter by 0.1 percentage points to 4.7%.

There were 802,000 unemployed men (a 5.0% rate) and 587,000 women (a 4.3% rate).

The claimant count, which only includes those drawing benefits, resumed its downward path in November after a blip in October.

There were 3,400 fewer unemployed people under this count with a total of 833,200 unemployed - the lowest level since July 1975.

The unemployment rate based on the claimant count was steady at 2.7% - the lowest level since April 1975. The number of unemployed men on benefit fell to 619,100 (a 3.7% rate), while the number of unemployed women rose to 214,100 (a 1.5% rate).

The number of job vacancies was down to 644,300 on average in the three months to November compared with the previous three months. There were 2.5 vacancies per 100 employee jobs, unchanged on the previous quarter.

Jobs in manufacturing were once again down. They fell by 3.3%, or 112,000 jobs, to 3.26 million in the three months to October 2004, compared with a year earlier.