December unemployment and vacancies stats

December Unemployment Stats were published along with the highlights

Today we also point out that the figures published on vacancies per industry. This as a rule is not published and promoted. However there is value in observing this information to give a clear where the potential value for future skills and opportunities

• Comparing the estimates for August to October 2014 with those for May to July 2014, employment continued to rise and unemployment continued to fall. These changes maintain the general direction of movement since late 2011/early 2012.
• There were 30.80 million people in work. This was 115,000 more than for May to July 2014 and 588,000 more than for a year earlier.
• The proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate), was 73.0%, higher than for May to July 2014 (72.8%) and higher than for a year earlier (71.8%).
• There were 22.54 million people working full-time, 560,000 more than for a year earlier. There were 8.25 million people working part-time, 28,000 more than for a year earlier.
• There were 1.96 million unemployed people. This was 63,000 fewer than for May to July 2014, the smallest quarterly fall since July to September 2013. Comparing August to October 2014 with a year earlier, there were 455,000 fewer unemployed people.
• The unemployment rate was 6.0%, lower than for May to July 2014 (6.2%) and lower than for a year earlier (7.4%). The unemployment rate is the proportion of the economically active population (those in work plus those seeking and available to work) who were unemployed.
• There were 9.06 million people aged from 16 to 64 who were out of work and not seeking or available to work (known as economically inactive). This was little changed compared with May to July 2014 and with a year earlier.
• The inactivity rate was 22.3%, unchanged from May to July 2014 and from a year earlier.
• Comparing August to October 2014 with a year earlier, pay for employees in Great Britain increased by 1.4% including bonuses and by 1.6% excluding bonuses.

This months figures can be seen here on the ONS stats

Vacancies against the number of Unemployed are featured here

note that there were 3.8 at the beginning of the year and this has gone down 2.8 

This is significant

This indicates that there has been a potential reduction in competition for each vacancy

But for Recruiters and Career advisers the industrial vacancies information also provides key data in terms of demand. If you are looking for a job the potential demand gives us clear ideas about where the growth may be found

Additional statistics were also recently publised indicating the vacancies per industry. More information is available with history relating to those industries

VACS02: Vacancies by industry. VACS02: Vacancies by industry. (142 Kb Excel sheet) This table shows vacancies by industry according to Standard Industrial

A guide to Earnings