Unemployment has fallen by 16,000, with the number of people claiming jobless benefits also dipping, official figures showed yesterday.
The drop took the total to 1.41 million, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
The unemployment rate covering the latest quarter to July was 4.7%, virtually unchanged from the previous quarter, but down 0.3 percentage points over the year.
The number of economically inactive people, including those who are sick or disabled, have taken early retirement or simply stopped looking for work, increased by 73,000 to 7.88 million in the three months to July.
Thursday September 16, 2004
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