Remarkable falls in the Live Register

There are better measures of changes in the labour market (with the QNHS being best) but it can be instructive to look at changes in the Live Register and some of the recent changes have been remarkable.

The pattern of the Live Register itself is probably pretty well understood.  Here is the seasonally adjusted total since 2007: rapid rise, level for a period, period of decline.

Let’s look at the rate of change.  Here are the average monthly changes over rolling three-month periods since 2010.

The Live Register has been dropping for five years but the three-month period that has the fastest absolute decline has been the last three months.  The average month fall (seasonally adjusted) across June, July and August has been 5,100.  The next best of the 4,500 recorded for the three months to September last year.

Maybe the seasonal adjustment casts some doubts so lets look at the annual changes in the actual numbers.  Here are annual changes recorded in the unadjusted total on the Live Register each month since the annual declines began around the start of 2012.

The largest annual decline in the Live Register was the month just past, August 2017.  Compared to 12 months ago the Live Register has fallen by 51,762.  Previously, the largest annual decline was the 48,162 drop seen in March of this year.  And again these are the absolute declines which might have been expected to moderate but are doing anything but.