The total number of jobs in UK manufacturing has fallen again according to the latest official labour statistics published today (11 November) although the attrition rate has slowed very slightly.
There were 2.62 million employee jobs in manufacturing industries in the three months to
September 2009, 10,000 fewer than in the previously published figures for the three months to August. However the number of manufacturing jobs lost over the year to September was 222,000, just 1000 fewer than during the three months to August.
Across the wider economy, there was a small increase of 6,000 in the number of people in employment to 28.93 million, the first quarterly increase since May-July 2008. The unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent in the three months to September 2009, up 0.1
percentage point from the three months to June 2009 and up 2.0 percentage points from a year
earlier. The number of unemployed people was 2.46 million, up 30,000 from the three months to June 2009 and up 629,000 from a year earlier.
Full-time employment fell by 80,000, to reach 21.26 million, while part-time employment increased by 86,000 to reach a record high of 7.66 million. There were 997,000 employees and self-employed people working part-time because they did not find a full-time job. This is the highest figure since records began in 1992.
Commenting on the new statistics, Ian Brinkley, associate director at The Work Foundation, said: "Today's figures suggest that we are staving off the much-feared work crunch. With the continued contraction of the GDP, we would have expected a larger contraction in the labour market at this stage. However, the statistics appear to indicate that unemployment will peak significantly below the three million level that the government is planning for. Good news certainly, but we still have a long way to go before we can be sure recovery is robustly established. For many – especially the young and those in full time jobs in the private sector – there are still many months of job loss and insecurity to come."
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