UK jobs market takes a turn for the worse

Job figures released yesterday were disappointing but not unexpected. After a few surprisingly upbeat quarters the UK jobs market has finally caught up with the reality of weaker demand in the private sector and the impact of mounting public sector job cuts.

The figures are a mix of ups and downs – but most of them downs. The headline figure for unemployment is up (by 38,000 to 2.494 million on the quarterly Labour Force Survey measure and by 37,100 to 1.56 million for the month to June; as shown by the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance. Jobs up for men (49,000) but down (24,000) for women, a clear signal of the impact of public sector jobs cuts. Youth unemployment is up (15,000). Redundancies are up (32,000) but vacancies are down (22,000). The number of people working part-time because they can't find a full-time job is up (83,000 to 1.264 million). The rate of pay rises is up (2.6% including bonuses) but only by around half the rate of price inflation.

Gareth Osborne of APA said: "The jobs market has clearly taken a turn for the worse since the start of the year with unemployment and the claimant measure now increasing. Given what we know about the economic outlook for the UK economy this year and next year it looks like jobs will remain tough to come by for the general workforce. PAs are not immune, especially where larger business and the public sector are still making cuts, but we are seeing an increasing demand for PAs in the small business sector as Directors are being stretched to be more productive.”

APA