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Unemployment statistics no sign of recovery
The latest labour market statistics do not seem to be a signal recovery, but indicates that households are short of money. Its most striking feature are the divergence in male and female employment, and signs of a shift to part time work.
The slight rise in the number of people in employment in the three months to the end of September was the result of an increase in the number of people who have part time jobs (of 86,000), which offset a drop in the number of people with fill time jobs (of 80,000).
The number of people who wanted a part-time job has barely increased: most of the new part-time workers are people who could not find a full-time job, or students. Neither of these is very positive (if we interpret the increase in the number of students working as reflecting a lack of other funding). the number of people in part-time jobs because they could not find a full time job is the highest since records began in 1992.
Similarly, while the number of people who have temporary jobs has barely changed, the number who have a temporary job because they could not find a permanent job has risen, while the number who did not want a permanent job has fallen.
A drop in the number of men in employment has been more than offset by a rise in the number of women in employment, but the number of women claiming jobseeker’s allowance (the claimant count) rose: more women want work, and some of them have found it. The most likely reason that more women want work is that their households need the income: probably as a result of the rise in male unemplyment.
These trends seem to have continued into October with both male and female claimant counts rising, although the total increase was fairly small at 12,000. Although this is the smallest rise, it is still a rise, and the claimant count is at its highest level since 1997.
More people need work, and they are finding it hard to find either full-time permanent jobs, and the apparent improvement is the result of more people taking temporary or part-time jobs out of necessity rather than choice.
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