Commenting on the latest ONS Labour Market statistics released today, Mark Beatson, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said: "The latest figures show continued growth in the UK labour market.  The large reduction in unemployment is partly accounted for by an increase in the number of young people who are in full-time education. It is encouraging that young people are taking up opportunities to enhance their skills but youth unemployment still runs at almost 19 per cent. Creating opportunities for young people to learn skills on the job is as important as ever and we welcome today's announcement by the Government to extend the Youth Contract Employer Wage Incentive. The incentive is a useful way to overcome some of the financial concerns around taking on a young person, particularly for SMEs. However, the Youth Contract only goes so far, to make sustainable progress on tackling youth unemployment we need a mind-set change among employers so that they recognise the long-term business benefits of investing in young people.

"The overall picture shows that employment is increasing at a slower rate than in the early months of 2012 but there are no signs yet of it going into reverse, which is consistent with the data on hiring intentions of employers highlighted in the latest CIPD quarterly Labour Market Outlook report.

"The new figures for employment in the public and private sectors released today show that job growth in the private sector continues to exceed job reduction in the public sector.  Excluding classification changes, the rate of job loss in the public sector appears to have slowed down marginally in the last couple of quarters.  However, the latest forecasts released with the Autumn Statement, suggest that public sector employment will continue to fall for years to come. Sustainable job recovery will depend on the private sector."