Guardian News and Media/London

Unemployment in the UK has dropped to its lowest level since the height of the 2008 financial crisis as a growing economy creates more part-time jobs, according to official figures.

Both government measures of joblessness are falling, although data from the Office for National Statistics hinted that the improvement in the labour market could be slowing.

The labour force survey measure of unemployment, an internationally-agreed yardstick, declined by 146,000 in the three months to July, taking the total to 2.02mn.

Over the past year, unemployment has dropped by 468,000, the largest annual fall since the so-called Lawson boom in 1988.

The unemployment rate fell more sharply than expected, with the drop from 6.4% to 6.2% taking it to levels not seen for almost six years.

The alternative claimant count measure, which looks at the number of people out of work and claiming jobseeker’s allowance, fell by 37,200 to 966,500 in August, the first time it has been below a million since September 2008, the month the global financial system was convulsed by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

Between May and June 2014 there were 774,000 more people in work than in the same three months of 2013, but the ONS said that in the three months ending in July, employment rose by just 74,000, the smallest increase for more than a year.

It said that of the 74,000 jobs created, 68,000 were part-time.

ONS data for pay showed that increases in earnings continue to lag behind the 1.5% annual inflation rate, although the gap is narrowing. Pay including bonuses in the three months ending in July was 0.6% higher than in the same three months of 2013, while excluding bonuses it was up by 0.7%.

In the three months to June, earnings including bonuses were 0.2% lower than a year earlier, while excluding bonuses they were up by 0.6%.

Annual comparisons in recent months have been distorted by the timing of City bonuses in 2013, which were deferred to take advantage of the fall in the top rate of income tax from 50% to 45%.

John Philpott, the director of the Jobs Economist consultancy, said: “Although the UK labour market continues to improve, there are tentative signs in the latest figures that the balance between job creation and pay growth may have started to shift. The increase of 74,000 in the number of people in work is less than half that recorded in the previous quarter and the lowest quarterly increase for a year.

 

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