Unemployment Steady At 13.4% In April

The seasonally adjusted Live Register total decreased from 433,000 in March to 432,500 in April, a decrease of 500.

In the year to April 2010 there was an unadjusted increase in the Live Register of 50,781 (up 13.3%). This compares with an increase of 65,918 (up by 17.9%) in the year to March 2010.

There was a decrease of 1,500 men and an increase of 900 women in the seasonally adjusted series in April.

The average net weekly decrease in the seasonally adjusted series in April 2010 was 100, which compares with a weekly increase of 150 in the previous month.

The standardised unemployment rate in April was 13.4%. This compares with 13.1% in the fourth quarter of 2009, 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 41,713 men and 37,396 women.