Employment grows in quarter to October as private sector recovers further

Small businesses are among those to have increased their hiring recently, with new figures showing that unemployment fell by 82,000 in the quarter ending October.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed this morning (December 12th) that unemployment fell by 0.2 percentage points between August and October, while 44,000 more people were in full-time work.

Additionally, long-term unemployment also fell across the three-month period, suggesting businesses are finding it easier again to increase their staff numbers.

Minister for employment Mark Hoban said that the private sector is also "creating far more jobs than are being lost in the public sector".

"It's a credit to British businesses that they're proving wrong those cynics who claimed the private sector wouldn't be able to step up," he explained.

"With unemployment falling again and more people in work, today's figures are very welcome. To see youth unemployment, excluding students, at its lowest level for three and a half years is particularly good news."

Earlier this week, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's Report on Jobs for November revealed that permanent placement numbers are increasing.

Posted by Emily Smith

Date published 12 Dec 2012 | Last updated 12 Dec 2012