Unemployment down, but benefits claimants rise
The number of unemployed people in the UK fell slightly during the last quarter, however there has been a rise in the proportion claiming jobseeker’s allowance.
According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, unemployment was down to 2.46 million in the three months to December, putting the current rate at 7.8 per cent.
This is a reduction of 3,000 people on figures from the previous three-month period, but the amount of those without a job claiming benefits was up, rising by 23,500 to 1.64 million.
Analysts had predicted this figure would declined by 10,000 and the jump is the largest to have taken place since July 2009.
Speaking to Reuters, economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland Ross Walker said that the data ’seems to fit more with the underlying reality’ that recovery from the recession is sluggish.
Earlier in the week, Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics noted that economic growth may be ’rather weaker’ than the Bank of England predicted in its latest Inflation Report.
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