Labour market is a lagging indicator …

… at least lets hope so right 😉

Unemployment rate rose to 6.8%, and the employment rate is at its lowest level since June 2003.  Further (relative to seasonal) weakness in part-time employment was the kicker here – which is why total hours worked (the size of the labour input in a sense) still rose.

Relative to many other countries our unemployment rate is still low – but the fact that a rising proportion of people are out of work for a long time is concerning, as these are the people that really struggle (loss of human capital, happiness, etc).

One thing I will say is this:

It has been worse.