17/12/2008:- New figures show some sector's employment growth

Figure released today by The Office for National Statistics show some areas of employment growth, casting a glimmer of hope into the gloom of the current economic crisis.

Leading the way was the public sector, an additional 14,000 people are now employed in the sector compared to the previous quarter and the total number of people in public sector employment now stands at 5.76million. These figures contrast with the private sector which saw a further drop of 128,000 to 23.61million.

Part-time employment numbers rose for the period, up 7,000 to 7.5million in the three months to October 2008. Whilst this figure equates to less than one percent change it could imply an acceptance on behalf of some firms that there are holes in their work force that need to be filled, with part-time workers proving the most attractive option due to their flexibility. It will be interesting to see how this figure changes in the coming months. Around 75% of the part-time work force are women.

Overall the picture looked more gloomy with total full-time employment down from the three months to July 2008. Interestingly only 4,000 less women are working since the last quarter compared to 118,000 less men. This could be explained perhaps by looking at the type of job roles that are being affected. Since the period of the three months to September 2007 a year ago over 100,000 jobs have been lost in the manufacturing industry which employs around 75% males. Of those 100,000 losses 74,000 were men. Additionally the Education, Health and Public Administration industry (predominantly female with around 5.6million women compared to 2.4million men) has experienced a growth of 90,000 jobs since the same time last year.

The sector hardest hit this quarter was predictably the Finance and Business Services sector which showed a fall of 72,000 jobs.

This report can be viewed in full at The Office for National Statistics website or by clicking on this link.

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