A step in the right direction

Another snippet of good news after yesterday’s inflation stats. Unemployment has fallen, and now stands at 2.61 million. It’s not a big fall, to be sure — down just 51,000 on the previous quarter (within the survey’s margin of error) — and there are still 185,000 more unemployed people than this time last year. But it is, as Chris Grayling told Sky News this morning, ‘a step in the right direction’.

The fall is thanks to pretty strong growth in the private sector, where 205,000 jobs were added between December and March. In fact, private sector employment is now just 133,000 off its pre-recession peak. Jobs are being shed in the public sector, with employment there at its lowest level since the start of 2003, but private sector growth is more than picking up the slack. Since the general election, 393,000 jobs have been lost in the public sector, but 529,000 have been added in the private sector.