The headlines rightly welcome the continued fall in the numbers of those who are unemployed and record that the number of women in work is at an all-time high.
One of the statistics published on Wednesday (February 19) that has not had much publicity reveals the huge rise in those who are now becoming self-employed. The three months October-December 2013 saw an increase against the previous quarter of 172,000 becoming self-employed.
And during October-December the number of people working as employees was up only 63,000 on the previous quarter. What such a drop in the numbers on PAYE does to the Chancellor’s collection of taxes we shall probably find out in his budget on March 19.
The fall in unemployment is not yet a straight line graph.
Between December and January the numbers in the Devizes constituency claiming Job Seekers Allowance increased by 2.24 per cent. This number is, however, still 21.2 per cent down on the number of claimants in the constituency during January 2013.
Wiltshire Council’s budget: will they freeze Council Tax for 2015-2016 as well?
