Interest rates and monetary policy: Economic indicators
Monetary policy affects the amount of money in the economy and the costs of borrowing. Find the latest data on interest rates in the UK, US and Eurozone.

This paper provides figures for the number of people claiming unemployment benefits (the “claimant count”) by parliamentary constituency, as well as a summary of the latest labour market statistics for the UK as a whole.
People claiming unemployment benefits by constituency, January 2019 (5 MB , PDF)
The claimant count figures provided in this paper are affected by the ongoing rollout of Universal Credit. The claimant count comprises people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or people claiming Universal Credit who are required to seek work. Under Universal Credit, a broader span of claimants are required to look for work than under Jobseeker’s Allowance. This has the effect of increasing the number of unemployed claimants. So changes in claimant numbers may be a consequence of the Universal Credit rollout rather than changes in economic conditions.
The effect is most visible in areas operating Universal Credit “Full Service”, where rollout of Universal Credit is more advanced: in these areas, there tends to have been a sharp increase in the claimant count over the past year.
In order to adjust for this effect, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published for the first time on 22 January 2019 an ‘alternative’ claimant count series. The alternative series modelled what the count would have been from 2013 onwards had Universal Credit been operating fully, to capture the ‘broader span’ of claimants covered by Universal Credit. So as well as counting people who were indeed claiming unemployment benefits, it includes people who may not have been claiming at the time but who would have been required to look for work had Universal Credit been in place.
People claiming unemployment benefits by constituency, January 2019 (5 MB , PDF)
Monetary policy affects the amount of money in the economy and the costs of borrowing. Find the latest data on interest rates in the UK, US and Eurozone.
The service industries include retail, finance, administration, and other areas. Find the latest data on the activity of the UK services sector.
Inflation measures the change in prices over time. Find the latest data on inflation in the UK, the Eurozone, and selected EU countries.