Another blow for Rishi Sunak – this time, in the form of new labour market data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It showed unemployment continuing to rise while job vacancies declined again.
The rate of unemployment has now increased for four months in a row – from 3.8 per cent in the final quarter of 2023, to 4.4 per cent in the three months to April 2024: the highest for more than two years and a rise of 190,000 workers over that spell.
Job vacancies have, meanwhile, fallen for 23 consecutive periods, with scant sign of any light at the end of the tunnel. Between March and May 2024, they fell to 904,000, a decline of 12,000. Since the peak recorded in the spring of 2022, the number of openings is down by roughly a third – although it should be noted that this is still ahead of pre-pandemic levels.
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