Nationally the employment figures published in February show a big increase in the numbers in work. The number of people in employment at the end of last year was the highest since records began in 1971.
The number of Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) claimants was down over the last quarter of 2012, but it rose between December and January. The total number of UK claimants in December was 1.56 million and in January it was 1.58 million.
And youth unemployment – that’s those aged eighteen to twenty-four – rose by 11,000 during the last quarter of 2012 which is the largest rise in this age group for a year.
Over the October-December 2012 quarter there was a significant fall both in the number of those in part-time work and those taking part-time jobs because they could not get full-time work.
The way the unemployment figures for each Parliamentary constituency are calculated has been changed and the amount of data published reduced. The figures for claimant rates or percentages now take into account constituency populations revealed in the 2011 census.
This has meant that the Devizes constituency’s rate of claimants for JSA given in the figures published on Wednesday (February 20) is two per cent – whereas under the old calculation method (using the 2001 census) it would have been 2.2 per cent. This makes comparisons of the rates in the various age groups impossible.
In actual numbers those in the constituency claiming JSA rose from 992 in December 2012 to 1,044 in January 2013.
The Office for National Statistics reported a continued cut in the real value of peoples’ pay. Regular pay (which excludes bonuses) rose by 1.3 per cent – the lowest increase since the end of 2009 and well below the inflation figure.
This factor helps to explain why the number of people with more than one job has increased by 41,000 to 1,100,000. But it also puts into perspective the harsh times some high street shops are experiencing as people’s ability to spend falls back in the face of inflationary increases in essentials such as food and heating.