Fears that a Brexit vote would trigger widespread job losses failed to materialise last month, with the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance unexpectedly falling. The claimant count fell by 8,600 to 763,600 in July, compared with expectations of a rise of 9,500, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The unemployment rate in the three months to the end of June was unchanged at 4.9%. Scott Bowman, a UK economist at Capital Economics, said: “The vote to leave the EU should cause some firms to put hiring decisions on hold or cut back headcounts altogether, resulting in the unemployment rate drifting up over the coming quarters. The unemployment announcement comes hot on the heels of Tuesday’s inflation update when the consumer prices index (CPI) rose to a higher than expected 0.6% in July.

Source: The Guardian August 17, 2016 08:38 UTC