U.K. Jobless Count Rises Sharply

The U.K.'s claimant count jobless figure posted its biggest monthly increase for 15-1/2 years in August as the slowdown in the economy weighed on the labor market, the Office for National Statistics said recently. The claimant count rose by 32,500 last month, the biggest gain since it increased by 71,400 in Dec. 1992. July's gain in the claimant count was raised to 27,800 from 20,100 reported last month. The claimant count jobless rate also rose to 2.8% in August from 2.7% a month earlier. Market participants were expecting the claimant count to rise by 25,000 and the jobless rate to increase to 2.8%, according to a recent Dow Jones Newswires survey of economists. The claimant count has risen by 56,300 in the year to August and promises to rise further as the credit crunch throttles activity in the financial and construction sectors. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings was the latest high profile failure in the financial sector that is likely to boost jobless figures. The ONS said the unemployment rate as measured by International Labour Org. was 5.5% in the three months to July, up 0.2% points from the previous three months. There were 613,200 job vacancies in the 3 months to August, down 56,900 from the previous 3 months, it said. The annual growth rate of average earnings excluding bonuses was 3.7% in the three months to July, unchanged from the 3 months to June. The corresponding rate including bonuses was 3.5%, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous period. The market was expecting the growth in average earnings excluding bonuses to ease to 3.4%.