Unemployment up for 3rd straight month

UNEMPLOYMENT rose on both sides of the Border last month, official figures revealed yesterday.

The rises came in the wake of warnings of further turmoil in the jobs market in the coming months.

Scotland's seasonally adjusted claimant count – those people out of work and claiming jobseeker's allowance – increased by 900 in April to 70,100, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The figure remains 8,900 lower than a year earlier.

Across the UK as a whole, the claimant count rose 7,200 in April to stand at 806,300. The rise is the largest since April 2006 and the first time for almost two years that the measure has increased in three consecutive months.

CEBR economist Charles Davis said: "Sixteen months of falls in the claimant count ended in February, so we are now seeing the labour market ease as the effects of the credit crunch start to impact the real economy."

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, added: "Unemployment is a lagging indicator and it seems inevitable that extended below-trend growth and markedly weaker business confidence will exact an increasing toll on the labour market over the coming months."

Using the alternative International Labour Organisation measure, Scotland's jobless rate fell by 6,000 over the three months to the end of March, leaving 124,000 unemployed – a drop of 7,000 from the same time last year. Total employment in Scotland rose by 5,000 over the quarter to stand at just under 2.54 million.

Enterprise minister Jim Mather said: "The Scottish employment rate continues to outstrip the UK average, a trend we will do everything possible to perpetuate."

• The Office for National Statistics said average earnings in the three months to the end of March rose 4 per cent, above forecasts and the highest since last November.

Excluding bonuses, earnings growth was more benign, however, and analysts suggested the Bank of England – charged with keeping inflation in check – would not be unduly worried by the figures.