UK unemployment rate rises 0.2% in first quarter of 2010

The UK's employment rate fell 0.3% between Q4 2009 and Q1 of 2010, according to figures released last week by the ONS.

The employment rate was 72% in the first quarter, with 28.83 million in work. The unemployment rate was 8%, with 2.51 million jobless. This is a rise of 0.2% quarter on quarter. The claimant count of people claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance was 1.52 million, a fall of 27,100, beating consensus expectations. Vicky Redwood, a senior UK economist at Capital Economics, says the data look weaker than the headline falls in the claimant count suggest. “The wider ILO measure of unemployment (including those not claiming benefit) rose by 53,000 in the three months to March. Employment fell by ...