While the number of people in employment continues to be up from 2016, reports published by the ONS this week show the number of people in work between July and September has fallen by 14,000 when compared to figures from April to June. Slightly confusingly, the number of unemployed people has also continued to fall. There are now 1.42m unemployed people, 182,000 down from the same period last year, with just over 32.06m people in work – 279,000 up on last year, but 14,000 down on the period from April to June 2017. Average earnings continued to rise during this period by 2.2%, lagging behind inflation, and the general stagnation of job vacancies further evidences a weak labour market, though employment growth is apparent in both the finance and gaming sectors, where only 18% of vacancies are posted as requiring Bachelor’s degrees, with an increasing preference being shown for professional and vocational qualifications – good news for the FE sector.
