Work and Jobs

The number of Londoners aged 16 to 64 in work stood at 69.6% in the three months to September 2012, according to government data. This represented a 1% rise compared to the three months up to June 2012.

   London continued to have the lowest rate of production sector jobs in the UK with only 3.2%. But the capital had the highest proportion of service sector jobs with 91.6%, showing how London’s heavy economic dependency on financial services, catering, retail, tourism, hotels and domestic work.

   The east London borough of Newham - an ‘Olympic borough’ -   had an employment rate of 57.2% between July 2011 and June 2012 - the lowest in the UK.

Unemployed Londoners

Some 8.7% of Londoners (aged 16-64) were out of work in Q3 2012. 224,801 people across London claimed unemployment benefit - Jobseekers Allowance - in October 2012, a marginal fall of 0.2% compared to October 2011.

   Most parliamentary constituencies recorded similar falls. The biggest falls of 0.5% and 0.8% came in two east London constituencies in Hackney.

   But no causal link was made to the expansion in Hackney’s Shoreditch/Hoxton area of ‘Tech City‘ -  a cluster of new and established creative and media enterprises. Both constituencies  sit next to the Olympic Park in neighbouring Stratford.

Underemployed

Catering and bar staff, cleaners, labourers, school assistants and young people, particularly those part-time and low-paid, reported in Q3 2012 they are ‘underemployed’ - wanting to work more hours but denied by unable or unwilling employers.

   Londoners featured prominently amongst one million more people across the UK reporting being underemployed since the financial meltdown and economic downturn of 2008. The underemployed total stood at 3.05 million in Q3 2012, according to government figures.