Unemployment by Constituency, October 2012

The number of people claiming JSA decreased by 4,000 between August and September 2012 to 1.57 million people aged 18 or over. The wider ILO measure of unemployment was 2.53 million in the period June-August 2012, a decrease of 50,000 from the last quarter. The unemployment rate was 7.9%. The number of people in employment increased by 212,000 over the last quarter, to 29.59 million in June-August 2012, an all-time high. However, the employment rate (the proportion of the population in work, taking population change into account) of 71.3% is still below its pre-recession peak of 73.0% in March-May 2008. The number of economically inactive people aged 16-64 was 9.04 million in June-August 2012, down 138,000 on the quarter.