British jobs market shows ‘encouraging’ improvement

Britain’s jobs market shows encouraging signs of improvement, official data showed yesterday, boosting hopes of a strengthening economic recovery, according to analysts.

The unemployment rate fell to 7.8 per cent in the three months to the end of May, compared with 7.9 per cent in the three months to April, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

The number of unemployed people fell 34,000 in the three months to May to reach 2.468 million, under the International Labour Organisation measure. And the number of Britons claiming benefits fell in June dropping 20,800 to 1.460 million people, the fifth successive monthly drop and the lowest level for 15 months. The decline was in line with market expectations.

The ONS added that employment meanwhile rose 160,000 in the three months to May to 28.9 million people, which was the largest increase since the three months to August 2006.

“The latest labour market figures are broadly encouraging with a further decent drop in claimant count unemployment, the number of jobless finally falling on the ILO measure and employment spiking up,” said IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer.

“This suggests that the economy’s continuing expansion, since returning to growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, is currently resulting in at least a temporary modest improvement in the labour market.”

Earlier this week, official data confirmed that Britain pushed further away from recession with 0.3 per cent economic growth in the first three months of the year.

However, the ONS had also revealed on Tuesday that Britain’s recession was deeper than previously thought.