Employment rate falls to 72.7 per cent

Redundancies in the UK may be on the increase as new figures reveal that the British employment rate has fallen to 72.7 per cent.

The findings from the Office of National Statistics note that the employment rate for people of working age was down 0.9 per cent in the three months leading up to June when compared with the same period in 2008.

In comparison, the number of unemployed people has risen, standing at 7.8 per cent for the three months to June – an increase of 0.7 per cent over the previous quarter.

There was a 2.4 per cent increase over the course of the year.

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Furthermore, growth in average earnings, excluding bonuses, has fallen, but earnings growth including bonuses has increased.

The news comes after the Trade Union Congress warned that unemployment was likely to be as bad as, if not worse than, the last recession of the 1990s.