Boom time as the number without a job falls to lowest level for 42 years
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UNEMPLOYMENT has plunged to a 42-year low, official figures showed yesterday, as the number of people working in the UK hit a record high.
It took the jobless rate – the proportion of the working age population not employed – down by 0.2 per cent to 4.5 per cent, its lowest since 1975.
The total out of work fell by 64,000 to 1.49 million in the three months to May, the lowest number of people out of work since 2005, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The number deemed economically inactive, including students, carers, long-term sick and people who have given up seeking work, fell by 57,000 in the three months to May to 8.83 million, a joint record low proportion of the workforce.
The number of workers climbed to just over 32 million, which was 324,000 higher than at the same time last year and the highest since records began in 1971.
The employment rate is also a record high, rising 0.3 per cent on the previous quarter to reach 74.9 per cent of the workforce thanks to increases in full-time jobs and there are a near-record 774,000 vacancies in the economy at any one time.
Youth unemployment has fallen by 377,000 since 2010 and is at 12.5 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds, while a record 70.4 per cent of working age women – more than 15 million – are in jobs.
Employment Minister Damian Hinds said: “These statistics are another reminder that our strong economy is giving record numbers of people the chance to find and stay in work. This is great news for Britain and for millions of ordinary working families.”
The figures were also hailed by First Secretary of State Damian Green as he stood in for Theresa May at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons.
Mr Green goaded Labour opponent Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, for being unable to “bring herself to welcome falling unemployment figures”. He told the House: “Unemployment is now down to its lowest level since the early 1970s.
“There are many members of this House who were not born when unemployment was as low as this Government have made it.
“One of the particularly welcome figures among the consistently falling unemployment figures over which this Government have presided is the fact that youth unemployment is now at historically low levels.”