HR Industry News

Government welcomes record figures of people in work

— 18 September 2007 —

Employment Minister Caroline Flint has welcomed the latest labour market figures which show a record number of people in work.

She commented: “We have made real improvements since 1997 – reducing the number of people claiming unemployment benefit by almost half and seeing numbers on all main out of work benefits fall in total by around a million.”

On the issue of full employment, she added “we are determined to reach full employment, something which would have been unimaginable 10 years ago.”

With more people in employment and an increasing number of vacancies on the market, recruiters must find new ways of attracting candidates and differentiating themselves from the competition. These figures are proof that the war for talent is real and will only get more competitive as time goes on.

Nick Thomson, Ceridian

The government has announced measures to fast track lone parents into vacant positions, and has confirmed plans to help 250,000 people into jobs through Local Employment Partnerships. Companies such as McDonalds, Vodafone and Sainsbury’s have already signed up to the scheme.

Key findings:

• Number of people in employment up by 132,000 on the year
• The unemployment rate is 5.4%, down 0.1% on the quarter
• Number of people on Jobseeker’s Allowance down 100,400 on the year
• Number of loan parent benefits down 6,000 to 771,000

Job vacancies remain very high, with government estimates putting the number of unfilled vacancies at 662,700, a rise of 64,600 on the year. More than 10,000 new vacancies are placed at Jobcentres every working day, and at least as many are coming through other recruitment channels.

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