Unemployment falls as Carney raises growth estimates

THE number of unemployed people fell by 48,000 to 2.47 million between July and September, the Office for National Statistics has said.

The unemployment rate fell to 7.6%, the lowest rate in more than three years as the recovery gathers pace.

The Bank of England has said it will not consider raising interest rates from their record low of 0.5% until the unemployment rate falls below 7%.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 41,700 to 1.31 million in October. In the North West the unadjusted JSA figure was 159,433 in October down 4.5% on September’s total of 166,991.

The number of people in work rose by 177,000, while the percentage of 16-to-64 year-olds in employment rose to 71.8%.

Meanwhile Bank of England Governor Mark Carney upgraded growth estimates for this year and next, and also defended his policy of forward guidance on interest rates.

The Bank of England expects growth of 1.6% this year – previously it expected it to be 1.4% and next year’s forecast was hiked from 2.5% to 2.8%.

Asked about forward guidance at his quarterly inflation report, he said: “Let’s say we didn’t have forward guidance. We’ve had a very strong, unexpected recovery. Given surveys, the discussion would have been: “Is the bank going to raise rates today?” Nobody’s asking that question and that would be foolish because it would be pulling the rug out from under [the recovery]. We’ve shifted the question to one about unemployment.”