Unemployment falls by 0.4%

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published the labour market statistics for October to December 2013:

• The percentage of people aged from 16 to 64 who were in work (the employment rate) was 72.1%. The employment rate is up 0.3 percentage points from July to September 2013 and up 0.6 from a year earlier. There were 30.15 million people in employment aged 16 and over, up 193,000 from July to September 2013 and up 396,000 from a year earlier.
• The percentage of the economically active population aged 16 and over who were unemployed (the unemployment rate) was 7.2%. The unemployment rate is down 0.4 percentage points from July to September 2013 and down 0.6 from a year earlier. There were 2.34 million unemployed people aged 16 and over, down 125,000 from July to September 2013 and down 161,000 from a year earlier.
• The percentage of people aged from 16 to 64 who were economically inactive (the economic inactivity rate) was 22.1%, little changed from July to September 2013 and from a year earlier. There were 8.93 million economically inactive people aged from 16 to 64, little changed from July to September 2013 and from a year earlier.
• Total pay rose by 1.1% compared with October to December 2012. Regular pay rose by 1.0% over the same period.

The unemployment rate is down, but the rate of decline in unemployment is also slowing (ie for the moment it appears to be bottoming out at around 7% ). This chimes with Mark Carney's (Governor of the Bank of England) recent statement noting that the recovery is not secure.