London, Nov16 (FN Bureau) The United Kingdom’s unemployment rate continued to fall in the three months to September, as the number of job vacancies reached a new record following the reopening of the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on Tuesday. “The unemployment rate decreased 0.5 percentage points on the quarter to 4.3 percent while the inactivity rate remained unchanged at 21.1 percent,” the ONS said in a statement. According to the report, from August to October, there were 1,172,000 job vacancies in the UK, an increase of 388,000 from the pre-pandemic level and with 15 of the 18 industry sectors showing record highs.
In October, after the government closed the job support scheme designed to avoid massive layoffs during lockdown, there were 29.3 million people on company payrolls, up 160,000 on the previous month, the ONS added. “October’s early estimate shows the number of people on the payroll rose strongly on the month and stands well above its pre-pandemic level. There is also no sign of an upturn in redundancies and businesses tell us that only a very small proportion of their previously furloughed staff have been laid off. In addition, vacancies again reached a new record high,” Sam Beckett, ONS head of economic statistics, was quoted as saying. Reacting to the report, the Confederation of British Industry praised that the UK job market had remained strong over the summer, but warned that the ongoing supply chain issues, labor shortage and record high vacancies “have put a brake on growth.”