Job boards have been holding more vacancies over the last year, if statistics released today by the Office for National Statistics are to be believed.
The figures reveal that the number of job vacancies increased by 15,400 over the year to March 2005, despite the fact that they fell by 16,200 compared with the previous quarter.
The number of people in employment has also increased, reaching the highest level since November 1975. Three-quarters of people of working age - 28.64 million people in the UK - are currently in employment, compared with 74.8 per cent in the previous quarter.
More good news for employees came with the revelation that the redundancy rate fell over the last quarter by 0.2 per cent, reaching 5.5 per 1000 employees.
However, despite the rise in the employment rate, the number of unemployed people also rose over the quarter, increasing by 29,000 to reach 1.43 million. This is equivalent to an unemployment rate of 4.8 per cent, up from last quarter's 4.7 per cent.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits also jumped, hitting 828,700 in March with an extra 29,000 people.
 © |
