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Official Government figures show that there has been a further fall in the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance benefit.

The number of job vacancies has increased. Growth in average earnings, both excluding and including bonuses, is unchanged.

The employment rate for people of working age was 74.7 per cent for the three months to November 2007, up 0.3 from the previous quarter and up 0.1 over the year.

Largest quarterly increase since 1997

The number of people in employment for the three months to November 2007 was 29.36 million. This is the highest figure since comparable records began in 1971 and is up 175,000 over the quarter and up 263,000 over the year. This is the largest quarterly increase in the number of people in employment since 1997.

Total hours worked per week were 939.5 million, up 1.2 million over the quarter and up 11.8 million over the year.

The unemployment rate was 5.3 per cent, down 0.1 both over the previous quarter and over the year. The number of unemployed people decreased by 13,000 over the quarter and by 29,000 over the year, to reach 1.65 million.

The claimant count was 807,700 in December 2007, down 6,400 over the previous month and down 131,400 over the year. This is the lowest figure since June 1975. The claimant count has now fallen for fifteen consecutive months.

The inactivity rate for people of working age was 21.0 per cent for the three months to November 2007, down 0.2 over the previous quarter but unchanged over the year.

The number of economically inactive people of working age decreased by 81,000 over the quarter but increased by 44,000 over the year to reach 7.91 million.

The annual rate of growth in average earnings (the AEI) excluding bonuses was 3.6 per cent in November 2007, unchanged from the previous month. Including bonuses it was 4.0 per cent, also unchanged from the previous month.

Average earnings 

There were 681,100 job vacancies for the three months to December 2007. This is the highest figure since comparable records began in 2001 and is up 12,200 over the previous quarter and up 79,000 over the year.

The redundancy rate for the three months to November 2007 was 4.9 per 1,000 employees, up 0.1 over the quarter but down 0.5 over the year.

Average earnings including bonuses, rose by 4.0 per cent in the year to November 2007, unchanged from October. Average earnings excluding bonuses, or regular pay, rose by 3.6 per cent in the year to November, unchanged from October.

In the year to November pay growth (including bonuses) in the private sector was 4.2 per cent, compared with 3.3 per cent for the public sector. Private sector growth excluding bonus payments stood at 3.6 per cent compared with 3.5 per cent for the public sector.

In the year to November 2007 consumer prices increased by 2.1 per cent, which is below the rate of earnings growth.

Related links

• Office for National Statistics