Employment growth 'masks problems'

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has warned that the latest labour market data from the Office for National Statistics are masking problems that are still faced by the UK's economy.

A fall in unemployment of 46,000 was recorded between April and June compared with the previous quarter, which means that there have now been five consecutive months of improvements in this trend.

Labour market adviser at the CIPD Gerwyn Davies acknowledged that this appears to be a very strong performance.

However, he warned that a closer look at the figures indicates that several factors demonstrate fault lines are emerging.

Redundancy activity has picked up for the first time in the year and many people are accepting part time roles or becoming self-employed as they cannot find full time work.

"There is also a continued increase in the number of people on government funded employment and training programmes," Mr Davies remarked.