UK workforce falls, vacancies at 1.23 million

The workforce has not sprung back. According to the latest labour market figures, released by the Office for National Statistics today, the UK workforce is falling, not rising. Employers may be crying out for workers but the number in employment fell by 52,000 in the three months to September, twice what was expected. This was due to a remarkable drop of 249,000 in September alone. Meanwhile, job vacancies still stand near the record high, at 1.23 million – about twice the average seen in the past decade. 

Unemployment, by formal definition, has fallen: a dip of 0.2 percentage points on the quarter, down to 3.6 per cent. Very few people seeking work are struggling to find it. But widen the definition to include everyone not employed and claiming out-of-work benefits (a figure not published by the government but discernible from the DWP database) and you hit a figure closer to 13 per cent nationally – rising to 20 per cent in Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow.