Women lead jobs upturn

WOMEN are dominating Britain’s jobs recovery as the number of people in work hit 32million for the first time.

Three quarters – or 244,000 – of the 324,000 extra people in work over the past year are women, official figures showed.

The Office for National Statistics said this has been partly driven by the increase in the state pension age for women. It has been rising from 60 since 2010, causing many to continue working.

Just over 15million women are in work, with the employment rate – the proportion aged 16 to 64 in jobs – at 70.4 per cent. This is the highest level since records began in 1971. Overall, the employment rate was 74.9 per cent between March and May.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.5 per cent, the lowest since 1975. There were 1.49million unemployed, 152,000 fewer than a year earlier.