12 August 2009 – Eagle: We will back young Britain and support the unemployed

The Government vowed to keep helping people into jobs as new figures published by the Office for National Statistics are released today. Figures show that while unemployment continues to rise, the ILO count, which is the overall number of people who are unemployed and looking for work, has risen by 220,000 on the quarter to June 2009 which is less than the previous month.

The figures also show that, for the first time since the recession started,  redundancies fell slightly last quarter and that there are still jobs available with 427,000 job vacancies currently being advertised across the UK.

DWP also published statistics today showing that numbers on inactive benefits, such as incapacity benefits and lone parent benefits, remain stable.

Work and Pensions Minister Angela Eagle said:

"The global recession is continuing to have an impact on families across the UK, but we believe the £5 billion of help we are investing is having an impact.

"Young people have been heavily affected by the economic slowdown and we are determined to provide extra help and support so we don’t lose a generation to long-term unemployment.  Last month we announced the first set of successful bids which will create 47,000 new jobs, and our Backing Young Britain campaign will bring business and Government together to create thousands of new opportunities for young people."

The campaign – Backing Young Britain, which is part of a wider £5 billion Government investment to help get people back to work, includes:

• £1 billion investment in the Future Jobs Fund, which will provide funding for 150,000 jobs – 100,000 jobs will be for young people and 50,000 for unemployment hotspots.
• £40 million will fund a new mentoring network to help young people find their feet in a tough jobs market and provide more help from day one of unemployment through job clubs and 1-2-1 support;
• A work trial from day one of their JSA claim. Work trials enable an individual and a prospective employer to assess a person’s suitability for a job;
• Working with business to create up to 10,000 work experience places available for unemployed 18-21 year olds;
• We are working with business to treble the number of graduate internships – from 5,000 to 15,000.

Notes to Editors:

Background to labour market statistics: August 2009

This month’s Labour Force Survey covers April 2009 to June 2009.  The claimant count and Jobcentre Plus vacancy count dates were 9th and 3rd July respectively.

The number of people in work fell this quarter

• Nearly 29 million people were in work in April to June.
• Employment fell by 271 thousand on the quarter and is down 573 thousand on the year.
• The employment rate is 72.7%, down 0.9 percentage points on the quarter and down 2.0 percentage points on the year.
• Number of workforce jobs is 31.188 million in March 2009, down 108 thousand on the quarter and 455 thousand on the year.

The number of people claiming JSA has risen again this month

• Claimant unemployment was 1,582.7 thousand in July 2009, up 24.9 thousand on the month, and up 709 thousand on the year. 
• The claimant unemployment rate, at 4.9%, is up 0.1 percentage points this month and up 2.2 percentage points on the year.
• Inflows to JSA were 355.8 thousand in July, up 2.3 thousand on the month and up 109.9 thousand on the year. The number of people leaving JSA rose to 335.7 thousand, up 9.6 thousand on the month and up 118.4 thousand on the year.
• In the year to February 2009, the number of people claiming employment support allowance/incapacity benefits fell by 14,300 to 2.6 million.  Provisional estimates for the period up to June 2009 suggest that the trend is now broadly flat.
• In the year to February 2009, the number receiving lone parent benefits fell 5,700 to 736,000.  Provisional figures for June 2009 suggest a continued downward trend in the number of lone parents on benefit (though now partly driven by LP conditionality reforms).

ILO unemployment has risen this quarter

• 2.44 million people were ILO unemployed in April to June, up by 220 thousand on the quarter and 750 thousand on the year.
• The ILO unemployment rate is 7.8%, up 0.7 percentage points on the quarter and up 2.4 percentage points on the year.

The level of economic inactivity is up on the quarter and up on the year

• The economic inactivity level is 7.955 million, up 127 thousand on the quarter and up 83 thousand on the year.
• The economic inactivity rate is 21.0%, up 0.3 percentage points on the quarter and up 0.1 percentage points on the year.
• Excluding students, inactivity as a proportion of the working age population is up 0.3 percentage points on the quarter but down 0.5 percentage points over the last year, at 15.4%.

There are still many vacancies available, and the number of redundancies may be starting to fall

• There were 277 thousand redundancies this quarter, down 9 thousand on the previous quarter and up 150 thousand on the previous year.
• ONS’s vacancy survey estimates an average of 427 thousand unfilled vacancies in the three months to July 2009, down 26 thousand on the quarter, and down 203 thousand on the year.
• In the last month Jobcentre Plus has taken on average around 10 thousand new vacancies every working day and many more come up through other recruitment channels.

Earnings growth in the year to June was 1.8%, up 0.4 percentage points from the May figure

• Excluding bonuses, average earnings growth was 2.2%, down 0.4 percentage points from the April figure.