ONS figures reveal finance jobs increasing

New figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that finance jobs have shown a bigger increase than positions in any other sector.

In June, job vacancies in finance and business services showed a 161,000 increase on the same period the year before. Meanwhile, jobs in all sectors increased to 31.69 million and reflected a 280,000 increase over the same time in 2006.

The statistics also indicated that the number of working age people who were employed was boosted by 84,000 in the three months to July to reach a record high of 29.1 million.

Additionally, salaries were shown to be rising, with average earnings during the quarter climbing by 3.5 per cent.

Employment minister Caroline Flint called the findings "a strong set of labour market figures with record numbers in work".

She added that prime minister Gordon Brown has introduced new measures which will help the country reach full employment, "something which would have been unimaginable ten years ago".