The figures that show why Johnson needed a December election

Poor employment statistics show the prime minister called next month’s poll just before things went from bad to worse, writes James Moore

Employment fell in the three months to the end of September. So did job vacancies (PA)

Britain’s labour market? It’s like a bit like milk that’s on the turn but has yet to go off. The latest official figures provided a demonstration of that.

They showed that employment fell in the three months to the end of September, by 58,000, which isn’t good by any stretch of the imagination. But it was better than the consensus forecast, which predicted a 102,000 decline.

Meanwhile, unemployment nudged down a bit, by 23,000 to 1.3 million. The two can both fall because there is a third group of people classed somewhat unfortunately as “economically inactive” – students, carers and the like. Changes to its composition, and to Britain’s population, have an impact on the figures.