Unemployment, 5%

[Protagoras]

So UK unemployment is 'officially' at 5%.

The Guardian reports that ...

"... Over the past year, the biggest falls in payrolled employment were in the wholesale and retail, accommodation and food services, and IT sectors."

Of course there are questions about the method of determining the unemployment rate, but it's hardly surprising given government policy. And now it's stated that the IT sector specifically is impacted.

There's speculation that interest rates may fall in response to this. I'm not sure that an interest rate reduction would help - it's not the cost of debt that's stopping businesses hiring, it's the policy cost of labour.

[milanbenes]

oh dear

Milan.

[sadkingbilly]

meh,

[BoredBloke]

Off Payroll will have a hand in this. Prior to the changes, when we rolled off a contract we didn't appear on the unemployment stats because we were still employed by our non earning ltd companies. Now that umbrella working is rife, as soon as the contract ends, you are no longer on their payroll and so the overall payroll numbers will fall.
Contractor churn, especially when the market is bad will show up in this!