A report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that employment opportunities, employment and average earnings have each fallen in May 2009.
The working age employment rate was down 0.5% in May 2009 to 73.6%. This represents a fall of 157,000 compared to the previous quarter. Working age employment was for UK born employees was down 1.3% to 74.1% in March 2009. Employment for non UK born people stood at 68.4%, down 0.9% on the year.
The rate of unemployment has increased by 0.8% to 7.1% - the equivalent of 2.22 million people. An additional 244,000 people lost their jobs during the last quarter alone. The number of benefit claimants increased by 57,100 to 1.51 million or 4.7%. Those unable to find work for 12 months or greater reached 506,000 at the end of 2008 - up 53,000.
At 1.34 million, the bulk of unemployment is amongst men, up 155,000 in the last 3 months alone. The number of unemployed women was 880,000 at the end of March 2009, an increase of 89,000. This represents an increase of 710,700 on the year. This figure is projected to increase over the remainder of 2009.
In terms of age groups, those aged 18-24 were hit hard by unemployment, with a total of 676,000 unable to find work. This figure has also gone up by 60,000.
There were 29.2 million people in employment between January and March 2009. The report revealed a total of 21.67 million people were in full time positions, in which of that figure 13.87 million were men and 7.8 million were women. There are 7.53 million people in part time employment, representing an increase of 3,000 to December 2008. The bulk of part time positions (5.7 million) were held by women with men holding the remaining 1.83 million positions.
A disparity exists between private and public sector employment as opportunities in the latter have actually been expanding. Public sector employment stood at 5.78 million at the end of December 2008, up 15,000. Private sector employment was 23.6 million, which was actually down 13,000 compared to September 2008.
Non seasonally adjusted employment for UK born people was down 451,000 to 25.28 million. However, employment amongst non UK born people was up 129,000 to 3.81 million between January and March 2009.
The number of people working in the manufacturing industry was down 160,000 to 2.73 million in March 2009. Numbers working in energy, mining and water supplies remained unchanged at 179,000.
The number of people of all ages who are economically inactive stood at 20.7% at the end of March 2009, which is down 0.1% in the last quarter. There are currently 7.83 million inactive people of working age in the UK, down 43,000 on the year.
The annual growth rate for earnings, which includes bonuses, fell by 0.6% compared to the previous quarter. However, the annual growth in earnings was up by 3%. This figure excludes bonuses.
A total of 921 million hours were worked between January and March 2009. This constitutes a fall of 13.1 million hours comparative to December 2008. The average number of hours worked each week also went down from 31.6 to 31.3 hours due to short time working and a reduction in over-time opportunities.
The global economic downturn has affected everyone in some way. It may be many more months before the corner is turned and these figures start to head in a positive direction.
Useful links: Debt Solutions | IVA | Debt Help
Call us free on0800 083 1433
to find out more.
