Unemployment Stays At 5.5%

The seasonally adjusted Live Register total decreased from 199,900 in March to 199,700 in April, a decrease of 200. This compares with an increase of 12,000 in March.

The wide variation in the monthly changes over the past two months refers to the timing of Easter (i.e. at the end of March).

In the year to April 2008, there was an unadjusted increase of 41,279 (up 26.7%). This compares with an unadjusted increase of 42,123 (a rise of 27.0%) in the year to March 2008.

The monthly decrease in the Seasonally Adjusted series consisted of a decrease of 2,200 women and an increase of 2,100 men.

The standardised unemployment rate in April was 5.5%. This compares with 4.6%, the latest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from the Quarterly National Household Survey.

In the month, the estimated number of casual and part-time workers on the Live Register was 10,313 men and 14,004 women.