Also reported was a fall in the number of job vacancies by 56,900 over the previous quarter with all sectors effected, however, distribution, hotels and restuarants and business services suffered the bulk of the decline.
However on the positive side despite a decline in the number of people in work of 16,000 in the quarter to July, this was still up on last year by 333,000.
Also within the figures was the fact that employees, particularly women are working more hours. This may be people wanting to earn extra money to pay down debt or perhaps they are just worried about losing their jobs.
A worrying indicator may be an increase in the redundancy level for the three months to July 2008, which at 138,000 was up 28,000 over the quarter and 18,000 over the year.
