It is also encouraging that the upswing in employment is largely focused on jobs liable to social insurance. In January of this year the number of people in jobs liable to social insurance rose by 743,00 or 2.4% on a year earlier. By contrast, the number of people exclusively in the low-wage sector fell marginally on a year earlier. Jobs growth is still particularly pronounced in services sectors such as nursing care and welfare, trade and distribution, health, education and training.
With business surveys very bullish, the clear upward trend on the labor market looks set to continue. On average in 2017 we now expect the number of people in work to climb by 600,000 to 44.2 million and the jobless total to decline by 140,000 to around 2.55 million.