12.12.12
Biggest quarterly fall in unemployment for 11 years
Unemployment in the UK has fallen by 82,000 to 2.51 million, the biggest quarterly fall since 2001. New data from the ONS shows that between August and October, the unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 7.8%.
Employment has risen by 40,000 to 29.6 million, which is the highest figure since records began in 1971. Employment fell 24,000 in the public sector, to 5.7 million, but private sector employment rose 65,000 to 23.8 million.
The number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance fell 3,000 to 1.58 million in November.
Mark Hoban, minister for work and pensions, told the BBC: “We see more people looking for work and actually finding work, so I think there's a really strong labour market there.
“I think there's more flexibility in the labour market, although this month we’ve seen a big increase in full-time jobs and no movement at all in the number of part-time jobs.”
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