Has the jobs market bottomed out? Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that, unexpectedly, the unemployment rate fell to 4.7 per cent, with the employment rate ticking up too.

That said, more accurate HMRC estimates for payrolled employees fell by 111,000 in the year to August. But there were signs that this jobs collapse is finally starting to slow, with a previous 26,000 fall between July and August revised to an increase of 1,000. A ‘flash’ estimate for September also saw an increase of 13,000 from the month before. Forecasts had expected jobs to keep falling.

There was no good news to be found in the vacancy figures, though, which show a fall in advertised jobs of 21,000........

© The Spectator