The statistics from the ONS support the anecdotal indicators seen by PSS-Europe.

Since the start of the recession, there have been falls in the number of jobs, resulting in lower employment, increases in redundancies and increases in unemployment, according an ONS article released today. However, the rate of decline of the labour market has slowed down in the third quarter of 2009. This is shown with the smallest quarterly increase in unemployment rates since the start of the recession in the second quarter of 2008, the largest quarter-onquarter fall in the number of redundancies, and only a marginal fall in vacancies on the previous quarter.

Over the past 18 months, employment rates have fallen for the UK and across the country, with some areas experiencing larger falls than others. Most notably, Northern Ireland and Wales had the largest falls, at 4.2 percentage points and 3.1 percentage points respectively. Historically, both of these countries have had the lowest employment rates across the countries of the UK . Employment rates have also fallen most for men and young people. The number of jobs in the UK has fallen, with the manufacturing and construction industries having the largest percentage falls. Of these two industries, the largest quarter-on-quarter fall was in the manufacturing, by 2.8 percentage points in the quarter to March 2009. In the public administration, education and health industry, there were increases in the number of jobs in each quarter.

Regionally, with a large manufacturing base, the West Midlands has experienced the largest fall in jobs, with the East region the lowest fall.

Redundancy levels increased from the start of the recession, to reach a peak in the three months to March 2009, when there were 299,000. Since then they have fallen and in the three months to September 2009, they stood at 205,000. Redundancy rates have increased most in the construction industry, where it reached a peak of 32.8 redundancies per thousand employees in the three months to March 2009.

Between the three months to April 2008 and the three months to September 2009, there were six quarterly increases in the unemployment rate in the UK . However, for the most recent three month period, covering the three months to September 2009, the increase is the smallest since the start of the recession. Within the UK , the West Midlands had the largest increase in the unemployment rate since the start of the recession, at 3.9 percentage points. Over the same period, the East Midlands had the smallest increase in the unemployment rate, at 1.8 percentage points.

Issued by
Office for National Statistics
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