One of the UK’s biggest economic problems is having so many people out of work – and the slowest return to pre-pandemic workforce levels in Europe. This is costly and slows growth, as taxpayers foot the bill for benefits while employers struggle to fill vacancies. Today’s figures show that it is getting better – but slowly.
The official unemployment count crept up to 3.9 per cent in the latest statistics. This is, ironically, a good sign as it shows more people are actually looking for work (about 12 per cent of the working-age population are on out-of-work benefits, although this is a figure that ministers seldom update and never publicise).
Meanwhile, figures released this morning by the Office for National Statistics show that job vacancies have fallen for the tenth consecutive period. They’re down 55,000 but still stand at just over a million jobs. To put this into perspective, the average in the pre-pandemic decade was about 600,000.
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