Unemployment rate steady despite jobless drop, vacancies rise again

The number of job vacancies on offer in the UK grew 3.8% in the three months to May, as the number of people out of work dropped slightly, although not enough to impact on the 7.8% unemployment rate, finds the Office for National Statistics.
Wed, 12 Jun 2013The number of job vacancies on offer in the UK grew 3.8% in the three months to May, as the number of people out of work dropped slightly, although not enough to impact on the 7.8% unemployment rate, finds the Office for National Statistics.

In the three months to May, there were 516,000 job vacancies, up from the 497,000 figure in the previous three-month period to February, according to the ONS's Labour Market Statistics for June 2013, available online.

The ‘wholesale & retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles’ sector makes up almost exactly a fifth of these vacancies, and has shown growth of 10% quarter-on-quarter.

Vacancy growth, or marginal or no change, was seen across the other sectors of the economy, with the only industry seeing job ad declines in the period being ‘other service activities’, where vacancies dropped from 14,000 to 13,000.

Total employment rose by 24,000 in the three months to April 2013, the latest period for which data is available, while the number of people out of work dropped by 5,000.

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