Deloitte’s chief economist labour market figures comment

Commenting on the latest labour market figures, published this morning by the Office for National Statistics, Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte, the business advisory firm, said:

“Despite uncertainties and slowing growth, unemployment has fallen far faster than expected this year. The UK has been hugely successful at getting people into work.

“It’s pretty remarkable that the UK today has a lower jobless rate than job-creating stars such as Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, and lower than in 24 of the 28 EU member states.

“Record job vacancies, low unemployment and slowing immigration should push wage growth up next year.

“The cloud on the horizon is that slowing growth next year is likely to put a brake on hiring. Our hunch is that the fall in the unemployment rate has probably bottomed out for this cycle.”

End

Notes to editors

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