Employment rate continues to rise
15 June 2018
For February to April 2018, the unemployment rate was 4.2%, down from 4.6% for a year earlier and the joint lowest since 1975.
The latest estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) show that in the three months to April 2018, the employment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 75.6% when compared with the three months to January 2018.
Key statistics include:
-
Employment increased by 146,000 compared with the three months to January 2018 to a record high of 32.39 million
-
Unemployment fell by 38,000 compared with the three months to January 2018 to reach 1.42 million
-
While short and medium-term unemployment fell, long-term unemployment increased compared with the previous quarter
-
The number of part-time workers who want a full-time job has followed a general downward trend in the three months to July 2013 but has levelled off and remained stable in the latest quarter
-
Vacancies increased by 33,000 compared with a year ago to reach 818,000 in the three months to May 2018