Record 32m in work … and a jobless rate half the EU’s

EMPLOYMENT numbers in Britain have soared to a record high as the economy continues to defy the warnings of Project Fear, official figures showed yesterday.

In an upbeat report that pushed the pound above $1.42 for the first time since the Brexit vote, the Office for National Statistics said there were 32.21million people in work at the end of November.

It is the biggest total since current records began in 1971.

The report also showed unemploy- ment at a 42-year low of 4.3 per cent – less than half the jobless rate of 8.7 per cent in the eurozone.

Analysts predicted that unemployment in the UK will fall below 4 per cent as Britain leaves the EU next year – confounding warnings that Brexit would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

James Athey, of savings and pensions group Aberdeen Standard Investments, said: ‘The job numbers once again strongly suggest that the UK economy is on a firmer footing than many had anticipated following the EU referendum vote.’ By contrast, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warned that the jobs crisis gripping the Continent risked creating a lost generation of young people. While youth unemployment has fallen to 10.6 per cent in the UK, it is 18.2 per cent in the eurozone, with nearly 40 per cent of young Greeks and Spaniards who want a job unable to find work. In Italy, youth unemployment is around 33 per cent.

Yesterday’s ONS report showed unemployment in the UK fell by 3,000 between September and November to 1.44million while employment increased by 102,000. The report eased concerns that the jobs boom was running out of steam following a recent loss of momentum. With a record 810,000 job vacancies in Britain, analysts predicted further progress in the coming months.

It is hoped the squeeze on family incomes will ease as wages pick up and inflation falls.

The ONS said average weekly earnings were 2.5 per cent higher in the three months to November than they were a year earlier.

But with inflation at around 3 per cent, living standards remained under pressure.

‘Further progress’