The number of people employed in the UK has unexpectedly dropped with official statistics showing the biggest fall in four years as Brexit uncertainty finally weighed on one of the more resilient areas of the British economy.
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, the number of people in employment dropped by 56,000 in the three months to August compared with the previous quarterly period. That was down from an increase of 31,000 in the May to July period and short of the rise of 23,000 forecast by economists polled by Reuters.
The drop — driven by a fall in part-time employment — pushed the employment rate 0.2 percentage points down from its all-time high of 76.1 per cent in the three months to July.
Part-time employment is more volatile and possibly the first part of the jobs market to reflect a change in sentiments. The drop in part-time work largely drove the employment reduction in 2013 and the slowdown in the summer of 2018.
“The employment rate is still rising year on year, but this growth has cooled noticeably in recent months,” said Matt Hughes, ONS deputy head of labour market statistics. [...]
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ONS Labour market overview, UK: October 2019
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