Over 50,000 Fifers  out of work and not actively looking for job - new report

Estimates from the Office for National Statistics show 51,448 people aged 16 to 64 in the Kingdom were defined as out of work and not recently searching for a job. This was the equivalent of 22.9% of people in that age bracket in the area – down from 26.4% a year before.

The figures further show 8136 were claiming unemployment-related benefits which includes Universal Credit and Jobseeker's Allowance. This gives the area a claimant rate of 3.5%.

Nationally, the figures have shown unemployment has increased, while rising wages have been eaten up by inflation.

Latest estimates suggest around 2.5 million people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness as of June – up 400,000 from before the coronavirus pandemic. The ONS said regular pay growth, which excludes bonuses, reached 7.8% in June. “This is the highest regular annual growth rate we have seen since comparable records began in 2001,” a spokesperson said.

But inflation ate away all this growth – with Consumer Prices Index inflation taken into account, pay actually dropped by 0.6%.

The ONS' director of economic statistics, Darren Morgan, said there were some reasons to be positive. He said: “Earnings continue to grow in cash terms, with basic pay growing at its fastest since current records began. Coupled with lower inflation, this means the position on people’s real pay is recovering and now looks a bit better than a few months back.”