Unemployment falls for fourth month in row with work increases in London and more jobs for the over 65s
This article gives us a big picture overview of the latest issues in the economic landscape. It tells us:
The monthly figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the total number of jobless fell by 65,000 to 2.58 million, the lowest level for almost a year, while the number of people in employment increased by 181,000 to just under 30 million, the highest level for almost four years.
But those people claiming jobseeker’s allowance increased by 6,100 in June to 1.6 million, including more than 8,000 women, the highest figure for 17 years. The ONS said the increase among women was likely to have been affected by a change in eligibility rules for lone parent income support from May.
Most age groups showed increases in employment, with a rise of 52,000 in over-65s in work to reach 929,000, the highest since records began in 1992.
But how can you work out what’s going on in your local economy if you want to get below this high level data? Company data for localities is hard to come by, many statistics are out of date or at the wrong geographical scale when we try to use them. We are responding to this directly at the RSN by working up a new free economic data service. It will have its limitations but it will use the easiest and most locally useful published data around vacancies, unemployment, incomes and sectors to give you a free entree to economic changes at the local level.
If you would like a preview of one really interesting data source, notified vacancy trends, let me know and we will try it out on you for your area. If you think about it, it stands to sense, but few people do, that rises and falls in the number of notified vacancies in a geography pre-figure increases or decreases in economic success in the local area, normally in my experience by about 3 months. There are a number of caveats to apply to this basic principle, but if they are appreciated and taken into account from the outset this free data is a really helpful starting place for developing an overview of how your economy is doing. We have systemised a way of looking at it and providing comparisons at a rural level. If you would like to be a guinea pig and learn more drop me an email.