Feared UK job losses did not occur in late 2011, confirming a message of resilience from online job openings – see Monday’s post.
The three-month average of employees in employment stood at 24.79 million in November, the same as two months earlier. This follows a sharp decline last summer – see first chart. Total employment has risen slightly recently, reflecting increased self-employment.
Employee numbers follow the official vacancies series with a lag. The latter continues to flatline, suggesting stable job prospects for early 2012 – first chart.
The bad news in today’s report was a further rise in the labour force survey (LFS) measure of unemployment to 2.68 million in the three months to November. The increase since the summer, however, reflects a combination of growth in the working population and a decline in inactivity rather than reduced employment. The LFS measure, moreover, follows the claimant count, which has stabilised over the last three months – second chart.
