More in work

Unemployment at seven year low

Figures for May show that 5.8% of the workforce is without a job; the lowest figure for seven years.

It was the 15th consecutive monthly fall and took the total to its lowest level since July 1990.

The figures were welcomed by Andrew Smith, Education and Employment minister who said "I very much welcome these improvements. Nonetheless, there are still 178,000 young people who have been out of work for more than six months and over 600,000 people of all ages who have been out of work for over a year. There is still much to do. That is why it is so important to introduce the New Deal and why we shall argue in Europe for policies to improve labour market flexibility and employability."

TUC says interest rate rise "premature"

Unemployment:Downward trend

Unemployment has now fallen by 530,000 over the past year and is 1.35 million lower than its near three million peak in December 1992. Meanwhile the increase in average earnings in the year to April was unchanged for the third successive month at 4.5%.

Other figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the stock of vacancies at Jobcentres fell by 300 last month to 274,300, although notifications of new jobs were up by 1,100.

Manufacturing output for the three months to April was 1.9% higher than a year ago although wage costs increased by 2.2% in the same period. There were 42,000 working days lost through industrial disputes in April, 4,000 more than in March and three times the figure for April 1996, mainly because of disputes in the construction industry.