The unemployment rate in the UK dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 8.1% in the three months to July 2012, the Office for National Statistics recently reported.
Although the rate has dropped slightly (which is good news) there is a more complex picture beyond this. The number of people out of work for over a year was 904,000, the highest for 16 years, while the number in part-time work was 8.12m, the highest since records started in 1992. The number of those working part-time because they could not find a full-time post hit a record high of 1.42m.
The overall drop is however good news for the economy when we are technically in a recession or in reality flat lining.
Meanwhile, the Employment Outlook Survey released yesterday by Manpower showed a positive balance of 3% of employers looking to take on staff in the final months of 2012, following a +2% balance in Q3. The balance is calculated by subtracting the number of companies likely to lay off staff from those looking to increase headcount.
