ONS: Unemployment falls by 34,000

Contractors may be glad to hear that unemployment has fallen to 2.47 million people.

The unemployment rate has fallen by 34,000 to 2.47 million people in the second quarter of the year, which could be good news for contractors.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics have shown that the number of part-time workers has also peaked and this contributed to the 160,000 spike in the number of people in employment.

Commenting on the figures, Vicky Redwood from Capital Economics claimed that while this is good news, the risk to the economy has not yet evaporated.

She said: "The UK labour market has perked up a bit, but we still doubt that private-sector hiring will pick up strongly enough to offset the severe public sector job cuts."

Ms Redwood warned that public sector job cuts, tax rises and weak growth in pay could all hit the economy as a whole.

Earlier this month, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's chief executive, Kevin Green, claimed that there is a strong sense of positivity in the UK's current jobs market.