In the 15-64 age group the jobless rate dropped to 10.8pc after staying at 10.9pc for both April-June and May-July. The rate for the age group was down from 11.1pc one year earlier. Employment as well as unemployment numbers were little changed in both age groups from the previous three month period. The number of employed continued a rise which started at the beginning of this year in May-July but unemployment also rose, breaking a falling trend evident since the first quarter of 2011. 

In an annual comparison the number of unemployed in June-August was 1.6pc lower and the number of employed rose 0.8pc from a year earlier. The number of employed within the 15-64 age group rose 4,400 or 0.1pc from from May-July to 3,804,200, and was up 31,800 or 0.8pc from a year earlier. The drops in the jobless numbers and the rise in employment numbers were similar in the 15-74 age group where the number of unemployed stood at 462,800 and the number of those employed totalled 3,836,400 in June-August. The activity rate in both age groups remained unchanged from May-July, at 56.0pc for the 15-74 age group and at 62.9pc for the 15-64 age group after increases in the previous four three-month periods. The activity rates for both age groups were up from 55.6pc and 62.7pc, respectively, twelve months earlier. The activity rate in the 15-64 age group rose back in the summer to a more than three-year peak reached in summer 2010. The rate started to slip in autumn 2010 and bottomed out at 61.9pc in Q1 this year. The annual average activity rate, at 62.4pc last year, was the highest since 1998. 16.8pc of those unemployed in June-August were between 15-24 years old, who are only present on the labour market to a limited extent. The unemployment rate in this age group was 26.0pc, up 1 percentage point from May-July but down 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier. The jobless rate for the most active, 25-54 age group was 9.9pc, down 0.1 percentage point from May-July, and down 0.2 percentage points in one year. Of all unemployed, 51.5pc have been chasing jobs for one year or longer, more than the 50.7pc pc measured in the preceding three months. The average period of unemployment was 18.6 months, 0.4 months more than in May-July. Average unemployment in 2010 was 11.2pc, up 1.2 percentage points from 2009. The rate rose from a low of 7.5pc in the summer of 2008 to peak at 11.8pc in the first months of 2010. The jobless rate dropped to 10.8pc by autumn 2010, but rose again late 2011 before a renewed decline started early this year.