UNEMPLOYMENT has fallen by 16,000, with the number of people claiming jobless benefits also falling, according to the latest figures.

Data from the Office for National Statistics said the fall took the total to 1.41 million.

The unemployment rate for the latest quarter to July was 4.7 per cent, unchanged from the previous quarter.

The number of economically inactive people, including those who are sick or disabled, have taken early retirement or who have stopped looking for work, increased by 73,000 to 7.88 million in the three months to July.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance last month was 100,000 lower than a year ago and has fallen by an average of 10,100 a month in the past three months.

There were 652,200 job vacancies in the UK economy in the three months to August, up 73,400 from the same period a year earlier.

The claimant count fall was the fifteenth monthly fall in succession and took it to its lowest level since July 1975, when it was 818,700.

Meanwhile, average earnings grew by 3.8 per cent in the three months to July against a year earlier, down 0.5 per cent from June's rate.

Manufacturing jobs fell by 93,000 to 3.36 million in the three months to July compared with a year earlier, while the total number of workforce jobs in June was 30.32 million, up 10,000 on the quarter and rising 199,000 over the year.