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There has been a small fall in the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance benefit.

The number of job vacancies has increased. Growth in average earnings, excluding bonuses, has increased, but earnings growth including bonuses has fallen.

Highest figure since 1971 

The employment rate for people of working age was 74.9 per cent for the three months to February 2008, up 0.2 from the previous quarter and up 0.6 over the year.

The number of people in employment for the three months to February 2008 was 29.51 million.

This is the highest figure since comparable records began in 1971 and is up 152,000 over the quarter and up 456,000 over the year. Total hours worked has increased by 0.1 million to reach 939.6 million.

The unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent for the three months to February 2008, down 0.1 over the previous quarter and down 0.4 over the year.

The number of unemployed people decreased by 39,000 over the quarter and by 90,000 over the year, to reach 1.61 million.

The quarterly fall in unemployment mainly occurred among people under 25 years old.

The claimant count was 794,300 in March 2008, down 1,200 over the previous month and down 110,600 over the year. This is the lowest figure since June 1975.

Vacancies up 

The inactivity rate for people of working age was 20.9 per cent for the three months to February 2008, down 0.1 over the previous quarter and down 0.3 over the year.

The number of economically inactive people of working age decreased by 36,000 over the quarter and by 71,000 over the year to reach 7.87 million.

The annual rate of growth in average earnings (the AEI) excluding bonuses was 3.8 per cent in February 2008, up 0.1 from the previous month. Including bonuses it was 3.7 per cent, down 0.2 from the previous month.

There were 687,600 job vacancies for the three months to March 2008. This is the highest figure since comparable records began in 2001 and is up 12,000 over the previous quarter and up 52,000 over the year.

The sector showing the largest quarterly increase in vacancies was distribution, hotels and restaurants which increased by 10,500 to reach a record high of 200,700. 

The redundancy rate for the three months to February 2008 was 4.2 per 1,000 employees. This is the lowest figure since comparable records began in 1995 and is down 0.7 over the quarter and down 1.6 over the year.

Figures at odds with other indicators 

According to John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the jobs, unemployment and pay figures will provide some comfort to the Government after a run of poor economic statistics and reassure the Bank of England that pay rises pose little threat to inflation. 

He warned that the latest official figures were at odds with other indicators of the strength of demand for workers, however, which could spell tougher times ahead.

“Even allowing for lags between output, jobs and unemployment the UK labour market is still behaving as though the economy were chugging along very nicely rather than on the verge of a significant slowdown. This could bode well for the resilience of employment in the coming months – especially with pay pressures sufficiently subdued not to deter further cuts in interest rates – which would greatly protect the UK economy from the possibility of a period of outright recession," Dr Philpott added.

He explained that if this were the case we could be in for a repeat of what happened during the last economic slowdown in 2005 when employer concerns about talent shortages led to ‘labour hoarding’.

Too early 

Employment levels generally held up, with employers cutting hours worked by staff and curbing average pay rises rather than resorting to layoffs.

The new Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showing a substantial reduction in average hours worked by full-time staff would support this possibility as would signs of continued pay restraint.

Dr Philpott said that it was still too early, however, to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Much will depend on the severity of the economic slowdown and the impact this has on business and consumer confidence. Indeed the official jobs statistics paint a far rosier picture of the state of the labour market than independent surveys, including those conducted regularly by the CIPD and KPMG," he added.