Unemployment by Constituency, February 2013

Various changes have been made to the format of this paper. The paper now includes a single data table instead of two. The denominators used to calculate claimant rates for constituencies have also been revised, in line with new data from the 2011 Census.

This paper contains labour market figures for parliamentary constituencies, as well as a summary of the latest national and regional statistics.

• The number of people claiming JSA decreased by 12,500 between December 2012 and January 2013 to 1.54 million people aged 18 or over.

• The wider ILO measure of unemployment was 2.50 million in the period October to December 2012, a decrease of 14,000 from the last quarter and down 156,000 on the previous year. The unemployment rate was 7.8%.

• The number of people in employment was 29.73 million in October to December 2012, an all-time high. Employment increased by 154,000 compared to the previous quarter and 584,000 on the previous year. This is the largest annual increase in employment since 1989. The employment rate (the proportion of the population aged 16-64 in work) was 71.5%. This compares to a pre-recession level of 73.0% in March-May 2008.

• The number of economically inactive people aged 16-64 was 8.98 million in October to December 2012, down 94,000 compared to the last quarter and down 294,000 compared to the previous year