Upturn over?
Jobless claimant count up for 1st time since January
(Reuters) - The number of Britons claiming unemployment benefit rose last month for the first time since January but there was a record rise in the number of people in work in the three months to July.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of people claiming jobless benefit rose by 2,300 in August after a smaller than initially estimated fall of 1,000 in July. That was the first rise since January and confounded analysts' forecasts for a fall of 3,000.
The mixed report is unlikely to alter policymakers' view that country's recovery from recession is fragile and will be vulnerable to the deep public spending cuts due to be revealed next month.
The pound fell after the figures, which some analysts said could prove to be a turning point after the improvement seen in the first half of the year.
"This is a classically mixed report," said George Buckley, UK economist at Deutsche Bank. "With the claimant count rising that does pose the risk that we get a second leg down."
The number of people without a job on the wider ILO measure fell by 8,000 in the three months to July to 2.467 million, the smallest fall since the three months to April. That left the jobless rate at 7.8 percent, as expected.
The number of people in work rose by 286,000, the biggest quarterly rise since records began in 1971, although that was mainly due to a 166,000 rise in the number of part-time workers.
The improvement could be short-lived once government spending cuts kick in. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that more than half a million public sector workers could lose their jobs over the next five years.
The squeeze on the public purse is already having some impact. The number of people employed in the public sector fell by 22,000 in the three months to June, the second quarterly fall.
"The labour market may have reached some sort of turning point, even before the public sector job cuts start in earnest," said Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics.
Average weekly earnings growth including bonuses rose by 1.5 percent in the three months to July, up from a 1.1 percent rise in the three months to June but below analysts forecasts for a reading of 1.7 percent.
That should reassure Bank of England policymakers that above target inflation is not seeping into wage demands. Data on Tuesday showed inflation held steady at 3.1 percent in August, confounding expectations of a fall.
Jobless claimant count up for 1st time since January
(Reuters) - The number of Britons claiming unemployment benefit rose last month for the first time since January but there was a record rise in the number of people in work in the three months to July.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of people claiming jobless benefit rose by 2,300 in August after a smaller than initially estimated fall of 1,000 in July. That was the first rise since January and confounded analysts' forecasts for a fall of 3,000.
The mixed report is unlikely to alter policymakers' view that country's recovery from recession is fragile and will be vulnerable to the deep public spending cuts due to be revealed next month.
The pound fell after the figures, which some analysts said could prove to be a turning point after the improvement seen in the first half of the year.
"This is a classically mixed report," said George Buckley, UK economist at Deutsche Bank. "With the claimant count rising that does pose the risk that we get a second leg down."
The number of people without a job on the wider ILO measure fell by 8,000 in the three months to July to 2.467 million, the smallest fall since the three months to April. That left the jobless rate at 7.8 percent, as expected.
The number of people in work rose by 286,000, the biggest quarterly rise since records began in 1971, although that was mainly due to a 166,000 rise in the number of part-time workers.
The improvement could be short-lived once government spending cuts kick in. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that more than half a million public sector workers could lose their jobs over the next five years.
The squeeze on the public purse is already having some impact. The number of people employed in the public sector fell by 22,000 in the three months to June, the second quarterly fall.
"The labour market may have reached some sort of turning point, even before the public sector job cuts start in earnest," said Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics.
Average weekly earnings growth including bonuses rose by 1.5 percent in the three months to July, up from a 1.1 percent rise in the three months to June but below analysts forecasts for a reading of 1.7 percent.
That should reassure Bank of England policymakers that above target inflation is not seeping into wage demands. Data on Tuesday showed inflation held steady at 3.1 percent in August, confounding expectations of a fall.
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