Labour market continues to see solid growth

19 Mar 2015 12:22 PM

Yesterday’s labour market statistics are good news for the Chancellor on Budget day with the data showing that the labour market continues to see solid growth.

Read the CBI/Pertemps Labour Market Update here.

• In the three months to January 2015, an additional 143,000 people were in work compared to the previous quarter. As a result, there are now 30.9 million people in work, an employment rate of 59.7%. Employment growth was driven by an increase in the number of people finding work with an employer, rather than a rise in self-employment.
• It has been the private sector that has supported continued employment growth. In the three months to January 2015, employment in the public sector fell by 5,000 but expanded by 148,000 in the private sector. Looking at specific sectors, a separate data set released yesterday shows that sectors like administration and support services, real estate, construction and scientific and technical activities were creating the most jobs in the final quarter of last year.
• As employment has risen, unemployment has continued to decline too. In the three months to January 2015 unemployment fell by 102,000 and, as a result, there are now 1.86 million people out of work and looking for work. This translates into an employment rate of 5.7% for those aged 16 and over.
• Turning to look at the picture for people already in work, the pace at which pay has been rising has edged down. Regular pay growth, which excludes bonuses, edged lower across the economy as a whole, from 1.7% in the three months to December 2014 to 1.6% in the three months to January 2015. Despite this, workers should still be feeling better off given that pay growth remains ahead of increases in the cost of goods and services (annual CPI inflation over the same period was 0.6%).