(News Bulletin 247) – The number of British people with jobs increased slightly over the three months to the end of January, which is a small bright spot for a country that has been mired in the crisis for many months.

According to figures released this morning by the ONS, the national statistics institute, the rate of people in employment improved by one percentage point to 75.7%.

However, the ONS points out that this improvement is mainly due to the increase in the number of part-time employees and self-employed people.

The unemployment rate remained stable overall, standing at 3.7%.

Employee compensation, including bonuses, increased by 6.5% on an annual basis over the three-month period to the end of January. Excluding bonuses, wage income rose by 5.7%.

But in real terms, i.e. taking inflation into account, average wage income, including bonuses, fell by 3.2% over the three months to the end of January on an annual basis, and shows a decline 2.4% excluding bonuses.

These are among the steepest declines since the statistics were first introduced in 2001.

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