Five questions answered on the 5,000 drop in UK unemployment

“The jobs market appears to be moderately improving".

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that UK unemployment has fallen by 5,000. We answer five questions on this recent drop in UK joblessness.

How many people are now currently unemployed?

According to ONS, the jobless rate has fallen by 5,000 to 2.5 million with the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance falling by 8,600 in May to 1.5 million

How many people are now currently in work?

After a rise of 24,000 in recent months a record 29.7 million people are currently in work. This means that the UK employment rate is now 71.5 per cent, while 7.8 per cent of the population is jobless.

What about youth unemployment?

Unemployment for those aged between 16 and 24 has also fallen from 43,000 to 950,000. However, those who are long term unemployed – those looking for work for longer than a year – was up by 11,000 to almost 900,000.

Women also came out badly in the statistics with the number of women out of a job rising by 7,000 to 1.09m.

What about average earnings and inflation?

Average earnings in April rose by 3.3 per cent, mostly due to companies paying out bonuses to workers a month later this year than last. This figure is a 1.3 per cent jump in total earnings from a year earlier.

However, this rise is dampened by the 2.4 per cent rise in consumer prices in the year to April.

What are the experts saying about these figures?

Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank AG in London told Bloomberg:

“The jobs market appears to be moderately improving.

“We may see a pickup in output without a further increase in employment.”