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UK unemployment rate is falling, graduate job hunters are told

Published: Wednesday, 13 October 2010   Category: Employer News | All Graduate job news

Britons seeking graduate opportunities received a boost today (October 13th) with news that the unemployment rate fell in the quarter to August.

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested that 2.45 million people are currently without a job across the UK.

The ONS noted that this represents a decline from 7.8 per cent to 7.7 per cent in the overall unemployment rate during the three-month period.

Scotland was the only country to experience a rise - from 8.2 per cent to 8.6 per cent - while an improvement from 7.7 per cent to 7.8 per cent was recorded in England.

The data also showed that the jobless rate in Wales dropped from 9.1 per cent to 8.2 per cent, with Northern Ireland seeing an improvement from 7.1 per cent to seven per cent.

Work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling explained that the government is approaching the situation in the right way through its planned spending cuts.

"Unless business and unless investors internationally have confidence that Britain is sorting out its financial problems they won't invest here," he told the BBC.

"They won't create the jobs we need, and that's the only way we can create sustainable, long-term employment."

The news comes after Lord Browne recommended in his review into higher education funding that universities should be allowed to charge unlimited tuition fees.

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