Prime minister welcomes news that Britain’s jobless rate has dropped to its lowest in over six yearsUK jobless rate drops to 5.6%PA: Record numbers in workUnions: Too many low-pay, zero hours jobsChartsInstant reaction 10.52am BST John Hawksworth, PwC’s chief economist, points out that while employment has grown rapidly since 2010, wage growth has not. That’s not a coincidence either:“Looking back over the past five years, average real earnings are around 4.4% lower, but employment has risen by around 6.5% over the same period. In this way, the pain of recession has been spread more widely than in past downturns in the early 1980s and early 1990s, with more jobs being created but at lower average rates of pay.” 10.42am BST The pound has jumped almost a cent against the US dollar to a four week high of $1.5028 on the back of the jobs data. 10.35am BST Here’s Rachel Reeves, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to today’s Labour Market Statistics:“Today’s fall in overall unemployment is welcome, but with working people earning on average £1,600 less a year since 2010 and the biggest fall in wages over a parliament since 1874, it’s clear the Tory plan is failing.“Labour has a better plan to reward hard work, share prosperity and build a better Britain. A Labour government will raise the minimum wage to more than £8 an hour by October 2019 and give tax rebates to firms who pay a Living Wage. We will protect the tax credits that millions of families rely on, get at least 200,000 homes a year built by 2020, extend free childcare from 15 to 25 hours for working parents of three and four-year-olds and guarantee apprenticeships for everyone who gets the grades.” 10.27am BST This chart confirms that the unemployment rate is now at its lowest since July 2008, the quarter before the financial crisis erupted. 10.06am BST At 5.6%, Britain’s unemployment rate is almost as low as America’s (which hit 5.5% in February). And it’s half the rate in the eurozone, where 11.3% of adults are out of work. Across the whole EU, the rate is 9.8%. Probably one of the best charts for Coalition: jobless record detached from Europe now as good as US pic.twitter.com/ineFmmvgf0 9.56am BST Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, questions the quality of the jobs being created in the UK today:“Most of these new jobs are mainly low-skilled, low-paid and zero hours..... “Most workers have seen little or no evidence of any recovery in living standards due to the Tories not promoting real economic growth based on investment and productivity gains.” 9.53am BST The prime minister tweets that today’s employment report shows his economic plan is delivering:More strong jobs figures show our plan is working - helping put Britain back to work: http://t.co/j7y4s67KxU pic.twitter.com/V5m2yfYjIY 9.51am BST You can see the jobs report yourself, here on the ONS website:UK Labour Market, April 2015 9.49am BST Unemployment has continued to fall and a record 31 million people are in work, the last jobless figures before the general election have shown. 9.46am BST Economists are welcoming the news that Britain’s jobless rate has fallen to 5.6%, the lowest since the run-up to the financial crisis.But there is some concern that wage growth isn’t accelerating.More good jobs figures - employment up nearly 250k in three months to record 73.4% of workforce; unemployment rate down to 5.6%.Pay still relatively subdued - 1.7% including bonuses, 1.8% ex bonuses, though well ahead of inflation.Regular pay growth at 1.8%, unemployment down, employment rate at record high - strong set of labour market stats.Employment growth driven by full time employee positions. Labour market composition shifting towards that over last year.UK wages growth in February alone fell to 1.3% so after 1.4% (Jan) and 2.4% (Dec) there is sadly a clear slowing evident #GBP 9.39am BST With inflation at zero, today’s data also shows that real wages continued to rise in the three months to February, after years of falling real pay.For Dec-Feb 2015 wages including bonuses up 1.7% on a yr earlier. Wages excl bonuses up 1.8% http://t.co/XEpzd276SE pic.twitter.com/uTMW1mosfZ 9.37am BST The UK unemployment rate has fallen to 5.6%, its lowest level since July 2008. And the number of people in employment has risen by almost a quarter of a million in the December-February quarter, to the highest rate on record. A pre-election boost to the Conservatives?#Employment rate 73.4% for Dec-Feb 2015, highest figure on record http://t.co/zNLTsoLpHm pic.twitter.com/BHQj9x00ZD 9.27am BST Heads-up: it’s nearly time for the latest UK unemployment data to be released. 9.17am BST Grexit talk in the analyst notes rising. Worth remembering though that faced with reality of a bank run, Greek govt compromised last time. 9.14am BST The Greek stock market is also calm, up 0.7% in early trading. 9.08am BST Fortunately my Reuters terminal is working perfectly this morning (thanks guys), so we can see that Greek bonds are trading at worryingly high levels.The two-year Greek bond is yielding 27.2%, broadly unchanged today, suggesting a high risk of default. 9.05am BST CONNECTION LOST #bloomberg pic.twitter.com/RGJGMDY0No 9.05am BST The technical problems at Bloomberg are a major problem for City types. There are more than 300,000 terminals around the globe, used for both news and trading.CNBC has a good early take: Bloomberg’s trading terminal experienced an outage on Friday morning, with some users saying they were unable to perform their usual trading activity.The company confirmed to CNBC that its terminal was currently unavailable worldwide, with traders from the U.K. and Singapore complaining on Twitter that they had been affected by the issue.Bloomberg terminals hit by global outage; "could well" affect trading volumes: http://t.co/C3gZ5a3Jx4 pic.twitter.com/wV5RbSGF5A 8.50am BST Alarm is sweeping the City this morning as traders and analysts realise that their Bloomberg terminals have crashed.It looks like a serious outage:Bloomberg helpdesk not answering phonesBloomberg problems argggghhhCome on @yanisvaroufakis and @tsipras_eu ! With Bloomberg down, this is your chance to default and exit the EMU without any repercussions. 8.47am BST The Greek crisis is also helping to drive money into German government debt. The yield (or interest rate) on 10-year bonds has fallen even closer to 0.0%. That means Berlin could effectively borrow for almost nothing and repay the money in 2025.German 10Y yields drop to 0.076%, record low - growing concerns over Greek debt crisis pic.twitter.com/yhjnOgKjnq 8.39am BST Greece’s Kathimerini newspaper is also gloomy, suggesting that a deal might not come before mid-May. If so, we can scrap hopes of a breakthrough at the April 24th eurogroup meeting With negotiations between Greece and its creditors effectively deadlocked, a potential deal that could unlock crucially needed funding appeared more distant than ever on Thursday with doubts appearing about whether an agreement can be reached in time for a Eurogroup planned for May 11, well after the next scheduled eurozone finance ministers’ summit in Riga next Friday, which had been the original deadline. 8.29am BST Darren Courtney-Cook, head of trading at Central Markets Investment Management, confirms that the Greek crisis is lingering over the City:“I think the Greece situation will be resolved but we’ve had a massive up-turn on the stock markets so far this year, and the underlying concerns are causing some people to take a bit of money off the table.” 8.27am BST European markets have opened mixed, with Germany’s DAX extending yesterday’s falls but the FTSE 100 rising a little: 8.14am BST Investors are underplaying the risk posed by Greece, according to Chris Weston of financial spread betting firm IG this morning: The Greek government have a mandate to stay in the European Monetary Union and they simply can’t leave. However a view from certain parts of the market is [Greece’s plans] to distance themselves from the rest of Europe and to actually be forced out.Markets still believe Greece will stay within the union in some form, but the risks are growing and a full ‘Grexit’ won’t be pleasant. The market is not prepared at all for this.Citi: "investors continue to bank on last minute Greek solution. This complacency likely understates tail risk for EUR" 8.07am BST Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.It looks like another day dominated by the Greek debt crisis, which ratcheted up another notch yesterday when the IMF effectively sunk the idea that Athens could be granted a payment delay. Related: Greece pushed a step closer to Grexit after IMF snub “We will compromise, we will compromise and we will compromise in order to come to a speedy agreement, but we are not going to be compromised.” Toying with Grexit, or amputating Greece, is profoundly anti-European. Anybody who says they know what will happen if Greece is pushed out of the euro is deluded.....Our only rational pro-European response is to spend every waking hour... trying to reach an honourable agreement.”#UK daybook: Euro Area Inflation, U.K. Unemployment Continue reading...
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