With the festive season in full swing and the jobs market swollen with part-time vacancies to fulfil this seasonal demand, the unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest rate seen since the summer of 2005. From Doug Monro, Co-founder of Adzuna.

The latest Adzuna data shows there are more than 1.1 million vacancies at present, meaning job seekers and movers have plenty of options. Despite this, the employment rate has slightly fallen. As the gig economy enters into its prime, the popularity of full-time jobs may seem second fiddle to more flexible, part-time roles, but a number of large companies – including Facebook and BT – have recently announced newly created roles that will boost vacancy figures.

The ONS stats show that the number of people working part-time sits at a staggering 8.56 million, 107,000 more than this time last year. Jobseekers, employers and consumers are all benefiting from improved consumer spending, resulting in higher advertised vacancies and employers profiting from an increase in sales. Far from a festive hangover, the jobs market is likely to carry the good cheer into the first quarter of the new year.”

Between May to July 2016 and August to October 2016, the number of people in work was little changed, the number of unemployed people decreased, and the number of people not working and not seeking or available to work (economically inactive) increased. There were 31.76 million people in work, little changed compared with May to July 2016 but 342,000 more than for a year earlier. There were 23.20 million people working full-time, 235,000 more than for a year earlier. There were 8.56 million people working part-time, 107,000 more than for a year earlier.

The employment rate (the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 who were in work) was 74.4%, slightly down from the joint record high of 74.5 percentrecorded for May to July 2016 but higher than for a year earlier (73.9%). There were 1.62 million unemployed people (people not in work but seeking and available to work), 16,000 fewer than for May to July 2016 and 103,000 fewer than for a year earlier. There were 888,000 unemployed men, 13,000 fewer than for May to July 2016 and 53,000 fewer than for a year earlier.

There were 728,000 unemployed women, little changed compared with May to July 2016 but 49,000 fewer than for a year earlier. The unemployment rate was 4.8%, down from 5.2 percentfor a year earlier. It has not been lower since July to September 2005. The unemployment rate is the proportion of the labour force (those in work plus those unemployed) that were unemployed.