Unemployment has dropped below 7% for the first time since the recession and employment has seen the biggest annual jump in a generation, reports the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Unemployment fell by 77,000 in the past three months, taking the unemployment rate to 6.9% for the first time since 2009.
In the largest annual rise in nearly 25 years, the number of people in a job rose by 691,000 – more than double the population of Newcastle - bringing the record number of people in work to 30.39 million.
Wages also rose on the year by 1.7%, against yesterday's announcement that March’s inflation had dropped to 1.6%, and job vacancies rose again, up 108,000 over the past year bringing the number of vacancies in the UK economy to 611,000.
Minister for employment Esther McVey said: “More young people are in work, more women are in work, wages are going up, and more and more businesses are hiring - and it's a credit to them that Britain is working again.
"But there is still more to do - which is why I'd go even further and call on more employers to work with us to tap into the talent pool the UK offers.”
The number of people in work has increased by 1.5 million since 2010 - over a million of these jobs are full-time – and the employment rate is now 72.6%, showing that the Government’s long-term economic plan to back enterprise and businesses so they can create jobs is working.
The proportion of women in work also hit a new record of 67.6% - the highest since records began.
Long-term unemployment is down 93,000 on the year, which is the largest annual fall since 1998. The number of unemployed young people also fell, by 38,000 over the last three months, and has been falling now for the past seven months.
The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 30,400 last month and is down 386,100 on the year. The number of young people claiming JSA has been falling for the past 22 months.
Background to labour market statistics: April 2014
This month's Labour Force Survey covers December 2013 to February 2014. The claimant count is for March 2014 and the vacancy count for January 2014 to March 2014.
The number of people in work rose this quarter
ILO unemployment fell this quarter
The level of economic inactivity is down on the quarter and on the year.
The number of people claiming one of the main out-of-work benefits is falling
The number of redundancies rose and unfilled vacancies rose on the quarter
Total weekly pay in December to February 2014 was up by 1.7% over the year
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