Wed, 20 Feb 2013Unemployment in the UK in the final quarter of 2012 dropped to the lowest total in over a year and a half, at just over 2.5m, equal to 7.8% of the adult population, shows the latest Labour Market Update from the Office for National Statistics.

The last time fewer than 2.5m people were out of work was during the period March to May 2011. The unemployment rate has now been 7.8% or lower throughout the last six months of 2012 – the last time it spent this long at this rate or lower was the beginning of 2009. Unemployment had been below 7% throughout 2008, and below 6% for nine straight years between the summers of 1999 and 2008.

This news comes the same day that it is revealed a new Nottinghamshire outlet of coffee shop chain Costa received 1,701 applications for just eight jobs.

The rise in the number of people in jobs by 154,000 included the largest annual rise in full-time employment since 2005, bucking a recent trend for part-time jobs rising at a faster rate.

Comments Charles Levy, senior economist at The Work Foundation: “We should be particularly encouraged by the fact that our economy is now consistently creating full-time work – full-time employee jobs increased by 167,000 over the three month period. And the number of individuals reporting that they are working part-time because they can’t find full-time work is finally starting to fall.”

Other highlights

• Regular pay – excluding bonuses – rose by 1.3% between Q4 2011 and Q4 2012.
• Unemployment continues to be slightly higher amongst men (8.1%) then women (7.3%), although the rate of male unemployment has overall dropped in the last two years while female unemployment has risen.
• The number of people aged 18 and over claiming Jobseekers Allowance fell by 12,500 to 1.54m.