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Employment | Jobs market boom despite political uncertainty

Jobs market boom despite political uncertainty

The latest report released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that despite economic and financial uncertainty, the UK employment rate is currently ranked at its highest ever percentage since records began at 76.1%.

This currently puts it on par for top place along with 1971. Estimates for April to June 2019 show 32.81million people in employment – this is 425,000 more than one year earlier. People working full-time increased by 262,000 to reach 24.11million.

The UK unemployment rate – for workers over the age of 16 years old – was estimated to sit at 3.9% by the ONS, this is lower than a year earlier which was 4.0%, whilst by quarter, the rate was 0.1% higher.

The unemployment rate isn’t the only potentially record-breaking factor from the latest statistics; the UK’s economic inactivity rate was estimated to be 20.7%, which would make it a record low. These numbers have been steadily increasing since early 2012; for April to June 2019, the estimated employment rate for men was 80.1% – this is unchanged from one year previous, yet down 0.2% on the quarter; this represents the third consecutive quarterly decrease.

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