The UK jobs market continues to be in good health despite a rise in unemployment, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has insisted.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published yesterday show that unemployment rose by 12,000 to 1.62 million in the three months to May.
Job vacancies also fell by 32,200 to 655,100 between April and June.
But pay pressures remain subdued despite the recent hikes in the rate of inflation and the measures for calculating average earnings showed a slight fall compared with the previous month.
Gerwyn Davies, public policy adviser at the CIPD said: “Yet again, the jobs figures continue to defy the woes experienced by the rest of the economy, which will provide some comfort to the government and reassure the Bank of England that pay rises still pose little threat to inflation.”
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However, Davies noted that the figures do not include the swathe of redundancies that have been announced in the past month or so. Housebuilders have announced thousands of job cuts in recent weeks.
“With a number of employers poised to pull the redundancy trigger in the next six months, the government will be hoping for some better economic news as the year progresses,” Davies added.
