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Employment in Britain hits record high

Xinhua, July 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

The employment rate in Britain has hit a record high of 74.4 percent, according to Britain's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on Wednesday.

The number of women with jobs has also reached a record high since records began in 1971, with 69.6 percent of women employed, said the British government department responsible for welfare and pension policy.

Britain's unemployment rate is now at its ten-year low of 4.9 percent, according to the latest figures released by the department and confirmed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS said the unemployment total fell to 1.65 million in the March-to-May period, down 54,000 from the previous quarter.

ONS statistics confirmed Wednesday that a record of 31.7 million people are now employed, up by 624,000 in the past year and an increase of over 2.6 million since 2010.

Of those with jobs, 23.19 million have full-time employment, 401,000 more than the figure recorded in the previous year.

The rise in employment, said the ONS, continues to be driven by full-time work, with average wages before bonuses growing by 2.2 percent over the last year.

"This remarkable set of figures shows that there are more people in work than at any other point in our history, which is fantastic news as we build a Britain that works for everybody, not just the privileged few," Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Damian Green said Wednesday.

"We've entered a period of significant change, but when it comes to our jobs market we're in a position of strength, with over 2.6 million more people in work than there were in 2010," he said.

The number of workless households dropped to an all-time low, with 750,000 vacancies in the economy and wages rising too, he said.

Employment has risen in all regions of Britain over the last year, he added.

Labor market statistics released Wednesday also showed that the unemployment rate among the young in the country, aged 16-24, is at a record low of 5.6 percent.

Wednesday's figures revealed the level of employment and unemployment in Britain in the months immediately before a referendum in which most Britons voted to quit the European Union (EU).

Economists will now be carefully watching trends over the coming weeks and months to detect any changes in the wake of the June 23 referendum result.

Economist Paul Hollingsworth said on Wednesday that the improvement in unemployment would almost certainly change in the coming months.

"The vote to leave the EU will almost certainly now cause some firms to put hiring decisions on hold or cut back headcounts altogether. We expect the unemployment rate to begin to drift up over the coming quarters," he said. Endi