The Office for National Statistics has announced that the latest statistics, based on the period May to July 2014, show that employment continued to rise and unemployment continued to fall.
According to the ONS:
'There were 30.61 million people in work. This was 74,000 more than for February to April 2014, the smallest quarterly increase since April to June 2013.
Comparing May to July 2014 with a year earlier, there were 774,000 more people in work.
The proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate), was 73.0%, slightly higher than for February to April 2014 (72.9%) and higher than for a year earlier (71.6%).
There were 2.02 million unemployed people, 146,000 fewer than for February to April 2014 and 468,000 fewer than a year earlier.'
Neil Carberry, CBI Director for Employment & Skills, said:
'The fact that unemployment is lower now than at any time since late 2008 is good news. There is more to do, but it's clear that our growing economy is feeding through to new jobs.
Jobs growth is coming from the private sector, more than making up for public sector job losses, and more young people are finding their feet in our labour market.
With unemployment dropping, and wage settlements in larger firms starting to pick up, we expect to see average earnings growth begin to rise in time.'
Internet link: ONS