But the TUC, which carried out detailed research and analysis using the Office of Budget Responsibility’s own figures, said that while the latest drop in joblessness was welcome at present trends it will be at least five and a half years before employment reaches 2008 pre-recession levels again.
The Office of National Statistics – echoing an upbeat survey by Manpower at the beginning of the week – said unemployment fell at its fastest pace in over a decade (since summer of 2000) during April, dropping 88,000 to 2.43 million, or a rate of 7.7 per cent – down from 8 per cent in the previous quarter.
But hidden behind this headline figure was a third jump in a row for unemployment benefit and jobseeker’s allowance claimants – a jump of 19,600 in May to 1.49 million. The average wage increase was 1.8 per cent, well below the 4.5 per cent inflation rate.
Public sector jobs fell by 39,000 but the Treasury said the 104,000 jobs created by the private sector more than made up for this.
Manpower, drawing on a survey of 2,100 employers, predicted this trend would continue over the summer with small to medium-sized enterprises being the real engines of employment.
The TUC said that although the employment figures appear to be better than expected – 416,000 new jobs in the past 12 months – the state of the labour market is still extremely fragile and the UK is far from returning to its pre-recession health. Even worse, it said, a stark regional employment divide means northern England failing to enjoy much of the recent jobs growth, says the TUC.
Half of the new jobs are part-time, leaving many of those finding work with a sharp fall in household incomes, said the TUC. General secretary Brendan Barber said: “The UK labour market is still very fragile and a long way off the level of jobs we had before the recession. New jobs are not being distributed evenly across the country, with employment conditions across northern England actually getting worse in the last 12 months. Businesses simply cannot create enough jobs to cope with the Chancellor’s cuts, which are putting a huge brake on our recovery.
