UK employment at record high: what the analysts said Claimant count is down on the month and revised better last month, so despite having a super strong first half of the year, the labour data are showing precious little sign of payback. James Knightley, ING The UK jobs report shows some reasonably encouraging newsflow on the labour market. The main disappointment was the fact that despite the gains in employment, there is no pick-up in wage growth, which remains at 1.8 percent, year on year. The fact that UK employment is rising, consumer confidence is up and anecdotal evidence of retail sales haven't been too bad, offers some hope that the domestic situation in the UK is stabilising. The BoE's Funding for Lending Scheme is also showing some tentative signs of supporting the economy, with borrowing costs edging lower. As a result, it seems the main risks for the UK are currently external through the US fiscal cliff and Eurozone worries, which the Bank of England can do little to offset other than subtly try and talk down sterling. John Salt, totaljobs.com These figures provide a glimmer of hope in what has been a dark year for the UK labour market. With Christmas on the horizon, we often see part-time and temporary jobs open up at this time of year. However, as with the Olympics, my concern is that the UK economy is being propped up by part-time or temporary workers and until we see growth in real job creation throughout the year, an underemployment bubble will continue to disguise the true picture of the UK's labour market. On top of this, the Chancellor's Autumn Statement has left more of a wintery chill in the air, signalling that we are not through the worst of it and can expect unemployment to rise again next year, hitting young jobseekers and the North of England hardest. Rob Wood, Berenberg Bank Close to expectations, but I think the bottom line is that employment growth is slowing. It Has slowed a bit over the past few months and weak UK growth may be beginning to catch up with the labour market. I think they confirm the picture of stagnation heading into Q4. With an economic contraction on the cards for the fourth quarter, and it looking weak in Q1, we'll probably see some more slowing in the labour market. Earnings growth, which slowed and was below consensus expectations (was) again a bit of downside news. The BoE were expecting a weak fourth quarter anyway so maybe not too much news for them, but as things to continue to weaken further, then it makes a move more likely. Vicky Redwood, Capital Economics The latest UK labour market figures contain further signs that jobs growth is slowing. Although the LFS measure of employment rose by 40,000 in the 3 months to October, this was the smallest increase since the start of the year. And the quarterly Workforce Jobs picture suggest that jobs growth in the last few months has been rather more modest than the timelier LFS figures have suggested. Employment on this measure rose by a modest 43,000 or 0.1% in Q3, following a similar rise in Q2. Admittedly, enough jobs are being created to mean that both the ILO and claimant count measures of unemployment fell in the latest data. But the 3,000 drop in the latter in November was marginal, with the claimant count essentially flat in the past few months. Meanwhile, pay growth remains very sluggish. Annual growth of average earnings slowed from 1.8% to just 1.3% in October. With inflation at 2.7%, this means that real pay is still falling sharply - hardly a positive backdrop to the festive shopping period.