News

Government offering jobseekers real help in tough times

12 November 2008

This is clearly a difficult time given the global economic slowdown. However, despite the weakening economic climate, there are still thousands of job vacancies in a wide range of sectors across the UK and the Government will continue to do all it can to help people get back to work as soon as possible.

Even allowing for the recent slowdown, the UK has one of the strongest labour markets in the developed world. Over the past decade the Government has pursued policies aimed at expanding employment opportunities to disadvantaged groups. New figures also published today show the continuing success of this approach, with the numbers on incapacity benefits and lone parents claiming income support continuing to fall - incapacity benefit numbers are down 47,000 to 2.60million on the year to May 2008, Income Support is down 27,000 to 739,000 over the same period.

Tony McNulty, Minister for Employment said:

"Every time a worker loses their job it is a personal tragedy and the Government is doing everything it can to get those people who have become unemployed back to work as quickly as possible.

"People who are worried about the current downturn need to know that there are jobs out there - the claimant count may be rising, but large numbers of people are also moving off benefits and into jobs.

"Those people who do find themselves unemployed are getting real help early on and today we are doubling the funding for Jobcentre Plus' Rapid Response Service, from £3 million to £6 million, so that we can provide extra support to employees of large scale redundancies."

The Rapid Response Service will be offered to every employer with 20 or more redundancies and in local communities who have been disproportionately affected by multiple smaller scale redundancies. Jobcentre Plus will work with partners such as Regional Development Agencies and local authorities and skills agencies in England, Scotland and Wales to help employees facing redundancies. This help could include skills matching, help with jobsearch skills and access to training and reskilling opportunities.

Background to Labour Market Statistics: November 2008

This month's labour force survey covers July to September 2008. The claimant unemployment and vacancy count dates were 9th October and 3rd October respectively.

Employment fell this quarter but remains historically high

29.4 million people were in work in July to September.
employment fell by 99 thousand on the quarter but is up 134 thousand on the year
the employment rate is 74.4%, down 0.4 percentage points on the quarter and down 0.2 percentage points on the year

The number of people claiming JSA has risen this month, but the number of people claiming other key out of-of-work benefits fell in the year to May 2008

the claimant count was 980.9 thousand in October 2008, up 36.5 thousand on the month, and up 154.8 thousand on the year. The claimant unemployment rate, at 3.0%, is up 0.1 percentage points this month and up 0.5 on the year.
in the year to May 2008, the number of people claiming incapacity benefits fell by 47.4 thousand, to 2.6 million and the number receiving lone parent benefits fell 27 thousand to 739 thousand.

ILO unemployment has risen this quarter

1.8 million people were ILO unemployed in July to September, up by 140 thousand on the quarter and 182 thousand on the year
the ILO unemployment rate is 5.8%, up 0.4 percentage points on the quarter and up 0.5 percentage points on the year.

Economic inactivity is up on the quarter but down on the year

the economic inactivity level is 7.89 million, up 15 thousand on the quarter but down 54 thousand on the year.
the economic inactivity rate is 20.9%, unchanged on the quarter and down 0.2 percentage points on the year.
excluding students, inactivity as a proportion of the working age population is unchanged on the quarter and down 0.4 percentage points over the last year, at 15.6%.

The number of redundancies is increasing although there are still many vacancies available

There were 156 thousand redundancies this quarter, up 29 thousand on the previous quarter and 27 thousand on the previous year.
ONS's vacancy survey estimates an average of 589 thousand unfilled vacancies in the three months to October 2008, down 40 thousand on the quarter, and down 83 thousand on the year.
More than 10,000 new vacancies come up at Jobcentre Plus every working day and many more come up through other recruitment channels

Earnings growth in the year to September was 3.3%, down 0.1 percentage points from August

Excluding bonuses, average earnings growth was 3.6%, unchanged from the August figure.

Key out-of-work benefits: latest levels, in thousands ¹

Date	Jobseeker's Allowance (claimant count)²	Incapacity benefits ³	Lone Parents on Income Support (IS)³	Other (IS others and Pension Credit) ^{4, 5}
May-97	1,619.6	2,616.3	1,014.2	256.2
May-98	1,350.0	2,631.2	961.8	232.5
May-99	1,273.1	2,653.9	936.6	222.3
May-00	1,104.7	2,686.3	919.4	210.8
May-01	974.9	2,753.7	900.4	180.2
May-02	947.1	2,765.7	871.0	165.6
May-03	947.2	2,773.6	855.8	156.0
May-04	858.1	2,772.9	823.3	155.4
May-05	854.1	2,741.6	789.3	151.1
May-06	951.6	2,688.0	774.9	152.7
May-07	877.4	2,643.2	765.6	167.1
May-08	824.6	2,595.8	738.6	173.3
Latest⁶	980.9	2,595.8	738.6	173.3
Change May 1997 to May 2008	-795	-20.5	- 275.6	- 82.9
Change on year to latest data	154.8	-47.4	-27	6.2

Between May 1997 and May 2008, the number of people claiming one of the main out-of-work benefits fell by 1,173,900. Since then there has been a rise in the number of JSA claimants, but it remains the case that the overall number of people on out of work benefits has fallen by 1 million since 1997.

1. This table includes the main out-of-work client group categories, with the exception of carers who are not subject to activation policies in the same way as other groups.

2. UK figures (seasonally adjusted) published by ONS. This 100% series is the most reliable and up-to-date source for claimant unemployment. Latest figures are for October 2008.

3. GB figures (not seasonally adjusted). Published by DWP back to August 1999 as part of the 100% working age client group analysis. Earlier consistent figures have been created by combining information from the previously published 5% sample data with the WPLS data. A consistent series for the UK as a whole is not readily available.

4. GB figures (not seasonally adjusted). Published by DWP back to August 1999 as part of the 100% working age client group analysis. Before this point a 5% sample series is used, scaled to be consistent with the 100% data.

5. Excludes around 86,000 claimants in receipt of income support and carers allowance. This group has been stable over time and does not affect the estimated decrease in benefit claimants.

6. October 2008 for JSA and May 2008 for other benefits

International Labour Organisation - what the measure means:

The ILO measure is taken from the household Labour Force Survey and records everyone who is out of work, is actively seeking a job, and is available to start work. It is based on internationally agreed definitions, and allows us to benchmark our performance with those of other nations. Last month's figures show us that we have the second lowest ILO unemployment rate in the G7 - better than the US, Canada, France, Italy and Germany.

The people who do not claim JSA but are actively seeking work according to the ILO figure are important as they are in still in touch with the labour market, even though they are not claiming benefits. These people might include under 18s not eligible for JSA, people who choose not to claim benefit or people on other benefits (eg incapacity benefits or Income Support).

This month we've seen the numbers claiming unemployment benefit up by 36,500 to reach 980,900. The number of people who are ILO unemployed is now 1.825 million, up 140,000 on the quarter.

IRRV Alert November 3 2008