UNEMPLOYMENT has continued to fall but the number of jobs in manufacturing firms has dipped below 3m for the first time since modern records began, new figures showed yesterday.
There was a fall of 3,000 in the unemployment total to 1.69m in the three months to January, a jobless rate of 5.5%, but more people have stopped looking for work.
The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance fell in February by 3,800 to 922,200, the fifth consecutive monthly reduction.
But the number of people classed as economically inactive, including long-term sick, students and those who have given up looking for a job, increased by 42,000 in the latest quarter to 7.88m, over a fifth of the working age population.
Meanwhile, the number of manufacturing jobs fell by 59,000 in the three months to January compared to a year earlier to 2.97m, the lowest figure since comparable records began in 1978.
Average earnings increased by 4.2% in the year to January,up by 0.2% on the previous month and the highest figure since last July.
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