UK jobless rate now lowest for 50 years at just 3.7pc

BRITAIN has achieved full employment for the first time ever as a surge in workers on payrolls sent the jobless rate to a 50-year low. The UK’s unemployment rate was 3.7 per cent in the quarter to the end of March, its lowest since 1974, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It meant that there are now fewer unemployed people than job vacancies for the first time since records began, a situation defined in economic terms as full employment. The number of UK workers on the payroll jumped by 121,000 to a record 29.5million between March and April. Between February and April, job vacancies also hit a record high of almost 1.3 million. Scotland’s unemployed fell to a new record low number of 88,000. But business leaders north of the Border warned of a recruitment crisis as job vacancies outstripped the number of people looking for work. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the low level of unemployment showed that the Government’s jobs plan ‘is working’. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak added the Government’s ‘unprecedented support’ had led to the jobs market ‘remaining robust despite global challenges’. ‘I understand that these are anxious times for people, but it’s reassuring that fewer people are out of work than was previously feared, and we are helping them to keep more of their hard-earned money through tax cuts, changes to Universal Credit and support with household bills worth £22billion this financial year’, Mr Sunak said in a statement. Pay including bonuses climbed by 7 per cent in the first three months of the year, better than economists had expected, as companies ratcheted up rewards in a bid to keep staff amid fierce competition from other employers.

However, Scottish firms have warned they are struggling to find staff to fill posts – and say this will hold back economic growth.

Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said: ‘Scottish businesses are facing increasing pressure when it comes to hiring, with shortages across the labour market affecting many sectors.’

She said there is ‘limited scope for wage increases’ and businesses ‘are trying very hard to survive’.

Official ONS figures showed there were 88,000 people categorised as unemployed in Scotland in the three-month period from January to March. This was 24,000 lower than 112,000 in the previous threemonth period.

It was also below the previous record of 89,000 in the period January-March 2019.

The ONS does not publish the total number of job vacancies in Scotland, as this is only provided across the UK as a whole.

But Stuart McIntyre, head of research at the Fraser of Allander Institute, said vacancies are also likely to exceed unemployment. He said inflation is outpacing wages growth, ‘despite more vacancies than unemployed people’, which is continuing to squeeze living standards.

Scotland’s unemployment rate – the proportion of people who are not in employment, want a job and have actively sought work in the previous four weeks and are available to start within a fortnight – is now 3.2 per cent, compared with 4.1 per cent in the previous three months.

Total employment in Scotland is 75.6 per cent, or 2,682,000, up 36,000 on the previous quarter.

That compares with a figure of 75.7 per cent across the UK.

‘Limited scope for wage increases’