>The UK unemployment rate has unexpectedly gone up while the number of job vacancies has fallen to its lowest level in five years as the initial impact of the Iran war on firms starts to be seen.
>The unemployment rate rose slightly to 5% in the three months to March from 4.9% in the three months to February.
>Analysts said the figures show the first effects of the Middle East war on the jobs market, and warned demand for workers would likely continue to weaken the longer the conflict goes on.
No-Scholar4854 on
4.9% -> 5.0%
Still very low. The UK has a lot of economic problems, but unemployment isn’t one of them.
Horatio2200 on
Please uniparty can we have some more mass legal immigration. Our economy really needs it.
gompgo on
Rachel Reeves’ economic plan is working, that’s what she said yesterday.
ExpressAffect3262 on
Our council is cutting 100 jobs and just really really inconvenient timing, introducing AI alternatives for customer facing tasks. But AI is absolutely not replacing jobs, and is only enhancing current staffs skills. The 100 jobs loss is just poor timing….
CiderChugger on
Who could have foreseen that raising business costs would increase unemployment. It’s a real shocker
TheWorldIsGoingMad on
*”UK unemployment rate unexpectedly rises”*
“suprisingly”
REALLY ?!?
If you hugely increase employers NI (a tax on jobs), make it harder to get rid of crap staff (“Workers Rights Bill”) and increase the minimum wage by more than inflation (again) and for young inexperienced people by even more, all in a country with some of the most expensive electricity in the world (for businesses), *how dim would one have to be to be “surprised” that unemployment has gone* ? That’s the question.
xanderblaze123 on
I’m not really surprised, given the way the war is going.
Inflation is rising, bond yields are rising and it won’t be long before interest rates go up.
Globally it’s looking quite stark with the price of oil and gas and all the refined products that come from oil and gas.
The longer the conflict goes on, the worse it becomes for the job market and overall UK economy. With the possibility of a looming recession.
People say the unemployment rate is still low, well I mean the thing with statistics, if you take out certain parameters and filters you can make any number look low. So who knows if it’s really true, but the number of economically inactive people is quite high. Coupled with the number of vacancies open.
For all folks out there, it’s going to get tough. Look out for one another.
Life_Sandwich_549 on
We need more “refugees” to work in slave like conditions I am sure that will solve it
Flat-Buy6231 on
Certainly wasn’t unexpected to anyone with a brain!
Biomorph_ on
That’s insane and has to be a lie surely there has to be so many jobs picking fruit early af in the morning that British people are lining up to do? With the weather about to turn good again im sure the statistic will fall drastically now that British people are getting their jobs back
Strange-Dentist8162 on
I expected it. Can I get a £900 a day consultancy job with the council please?
-6h0st- on
And it will be going up. And it won’t be because immigration but AI replacing jobs. So choose carefully who you vote for cause some won’t give a f about jobs protection over rich people interests
Alex_Error on
As an aside, from glancing at this thread, I do see people misinterpret certain figures compiled by the ONS. They have precise macroeconomic definitions where the standards are set by OECD, Eurostat and ILO, so it’s important to know which ones to look at.
* The entire population divides into the working age and non-working age (young and elderly/retired). The ratio of the working age to the entire population is roughly the **age-dependency ratio**. (Pretty much, definitions differ here).
* Now take the working age population. This splits into the labour force and the economically inactive (illness, early retirement, pregnant, maternity, full-time student, lazy, given up looking for work, etc.). The ratio of the labour force to the working age population is known as the **participation/activity rate**, the inverse being the **economic inactivity rate**.
* The labour force splits into the employed and unemployed. The ratio of the unemployed to the labour force is the **unemployment rate**. Annoyingly, the **employment rate** is not the inverse but rather the ratio of the employed to the working-age population. This difference in denominator means that the unemployment and employment rates do not sum to 100%. You can blame macroeconomists for that.
There’s no ‘massaging’ of figures to exclude the economically inactive from the unemployment rate, because including them would be definitionally incorrect.
AlanDove46 on
There has to be a formula whereby if you’re using *unexpectedly* enough times in headlines you are forced to change your experts
PangolinOk6793 on
“Unexpectedly” erhhhh does EVERYTHING have to be engagement bait these days
Limedistemper on
There’s nothing unexpected about it. Raise taxes on business at a time when cost of sales is also rising, at the same time as the customers are also cutting back is a recipe for disaster. Not much good having a bigger minimum wage if there’s no small business left to pay it.
Pen_dragons_pizza on
Well every large business seems to have done a massive round of redundancy’s recently
Satyriasis457 on
How is it unexpectedly when everyone is telling us to get ready for the AI replacement. Obviously AI isn’t replacing all workers but when efficiencies come with a cost
mediumAI1701 on
What bothers me is how often these adverse conditions hit us, but corporation profits continue to soar. Someone’s losing out here.
tylerthe-theatre on
And reform voters, this isnt because of immigrants, its a lack of jobs, a squeezed economy, AI and Brexit.
TheJesterOfHyrule on
“unexpectedly” Come on… COME ON… The government needs to act now as AI is coming and fast.
MonsieurBritain on
And here’s me with a 2h 30 commute for a job that pays slightly above minimum wage, and people say I’m mad. They haven’t experienced unemployment or insecure work.
Ell2509 on
Unexpectedly? Our great corporate overlords won’t shut up about AI and automation taking jobs, but a rise in unemployment is somehow unexpected?
PiplupSneasel on
Profits go up, costs go down, thats all capitalism cares about.
25 Comments
>The UK unemployment rate has unexpectedly gone up while the number of job vacancies has fallen to its lowest level in five years as the initial impact of the Iran war on firms starts to be seen.
>The unemployment rate rose slightly to 5% in the three months to March from 4.9% in the three months to February.
>Analysts said the figures show the first effects of the Middle East war on the jobs market, and warned demand for workers would likely continue to weaken the longer the conflict goes on.
4.9% -> 5.0%
Still very low. The UK has a lot of economic problems, but unemployment isn’t one of them.
Please uniparty can we have some more mass legal immigration. Our economy really needs it.
Rachel Reeves’ economic plan is working, that’s what she said yesterday.
Our council is cutting 100 jobs and just really really inconvenient timing, introducing AI alternatives for customer facing tasks. But AI is absolutely not replacing jobs, and is only enhancing current staffs skills. The 100 jobs loss is just poor timing….
Who could have foreseen that raising business costs would increase unemployment. It’s a real shocker
*”UK unemployment rate unexpectedly rises”*
“suprisingly”
REALLY ?!?
If you hugely increase employers NI (a tax on jobs), make it harder to get rid of crap staff (“Workers Rights Bill”) and increase the minimum wage by more than inflation (again) and for young inexperienced people by even more, all in a country with some of the most expensive electricity in the world (for businesses), *how dim would one have to be to be “surprised” that unemployment has gone* ? That’s the question.
I’m not really surprised, given the way the war is going.
Inflation is rising, bond yields are rising and it won’t be long before interest rates go up.
Globally it’s looking quite stark with the price of oil and gas and all the refined products that come from oil and gas.
The longer the conflict goes on, the worse it becomes for the job market and overall UK economy. With the possibility of a looming recession.
People say the unemployment rate is still low, well I mean the thing with statistics, if you take out certain parameters and filters you can make any number look low. So who knows if it’s really true, but the number of economically inactive people is quite high. Coupled with the number of vacancies open.
For all folks out there, it’s going to get tough. Look out for one another.
We need more “refugees” to work in slave like conditions I am sure that will solve it
Certainly wasn’t unexpected to anyone with a brain!
That’s insane and has to be a lie surely there has to be so many jobs picking fruit early af in the morning that British people are lining up to do? With the weather about to turn good again im sure the statistic will fall drastically now that British people are getting their jobs back
I expected it. Can I get a £900 a day consultancy job with the council please?
And it will be going up. And it won’t be because immigration but AI replacing jobs. So choose carefully who you vote for cause some won’t give a f about jobs protection over rich people interests
As an aside, from glancing at this thread, I do see people misinterpret certain figures compiled by the ONS. They have precise macroeconomic definitions where the standards are set by OECD, Eurostat and ILO, so it’s important to know which ones to look at.
* The entire population divides into the working age and non-working age (young and elderly/retired). The ratio of the working age to the entire population is roughly the **age-dependency ratio**. (Pretty much, definitions differ here).
* Now take the working age population. This splits into the labour force and the economically inactive (illness, early retirement, pregnant, maternity, full-time student, lazy, given up looking for work, etc.). The ratio of the labour force to the working age population is known as the **participation/activity rate**, the inverse being the **economic inactivity rate**.
* The labour force splits into the employed and unemployed. The ratio of the unemployed to the labour force is the **unemployment rate**. Annoyingly, the **employment rate** is not the inverse but rather the ratio of the employed to the working-age population. This difference in denominator means that the unemployment and employment rates do not sum to 100%. You can blame macroeconomists for that.
There’s no ‘massaging’ of figures to exclude the economically inactive from the unemployment rate, because including them would be definitionally incorrect.
There has to be a formula whereby if you’re using *unexpectedly* enough times in headlines you are forced to change your experts
“Unexpectedly” erhhhh does EVERYTHING have to be engagement bait these days
There’s nothing unexpected about it. Raise taxes on business at a time when cost of sales is also rising, at the same time as the customers are also cutting back is a recipe for disaster. Not much good having a bigger minimum wage if there’s no small business left to pay it.
Well every large business seems to have done a massive round of redundancy’s recently
How is it unexpectedly when everyone is telling us to get ready for the AI replacement. Obviously AI isn’t replacing all workers but when efficiencies come with a cost
What bothers me is how often these adverse conditions hit us, but corporation profits continue to soar. Someone’s losing out here.
And reform voters, this isnt because of immigrants, its a lack of jobs, a squeezed economy, AI and Brexit.
“unexpectedly” Come on… COME ON… The government needs to act now as AI is coming and fast.
And here’s me with a 2h 30 commute for a job that pays slightly above minimum wage, and people say I’m mad. They haven’t experienced unemployment or insecure work.
Unexpectedly? Our great corporate overlords won’t shut up about AI and automation taking jobs, but a rise in unemployment is somehow unexpected?
Profits go up, costs go down, thats all capitalism cares about.