Main points First fall in employment in a year, down 14,000 to 32.06 million between July and SeptemberAverage growth in weekly wages fell to 2.2 per cent in September from 2.3 per cent in AugustUnemployment fell by 59,000 in the three months to September to 1.425 millionUnemployment rate remained at a 42-year low of 4.3 per centSamuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics“The stagnation of vacancies indicates that employment growth will remain weak. The quality of job gains has deteriorated; a 29,000 fall in full-time employees was largely offset by a rise in part-time and self-employment. The proportion of part-time workers who want full-time work edged up to 12.4 per cent from 12.3 per cent in the three months to June.”John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC“Today’s labour market data broke the general pattern of recent years in seeing a decline in both total employment and average hours worked between the second and third quarters of 2017. This was due to rising economic inactivity, not rising unemployment, which fell by a further 59,000 between the second and third quarters.…

Source: The Times November 15, 2017 17:03 UTC