A late PS: America’s stock market did indeed end the day at fresh record levels.
Having burst through 25,000 at the open, the Dow Jones industrial average finished at 25,075, up 152 points.
Now, as James Mackintosh of the Wall Street Journal points out, it’s only a number...
Financial news of the day: Badly-designed U.S. stock measure goes through meaningless big number. Due to maths, the rise from the previous meaningless big number happened faster than many times in the past.
— Blockchain Mackintosh (@jmackin2) January 4, 2018
He’s right about the Dow being imperfectly designed too -- it only contains 30 companies, so can’t properly represent the US economy.
Closing summary
Right, time for a recap.
Global stock markets have romped to fresh all-time highs today as 2018 begins where 2017 left off - with shares rising across the world.
A renewed burst of investor confidence swept America’s Dow Jones industrial average over the 25,000 point mark for the first time - meaning it has gained around 25% in the last 12 months.
Traders drove the Dow up after payroll figures showed that American companies hired 250,000 workers last month - the best reading since March. It suggests that tomorrow’s US jobs report (the non-farm payroll) figures could be better than expected.
Jacob Deppe, Head of Trading at online trading platform, Infinox, reckons the Dow could hit 26,000 points soon:
“With the Dow Jones hitting 25,000 for the first time there seems no end in sight to a stock market rally spurred on by much stronger than expected jobs data for December, offering yet further evidence of the strength of the US economy.
Most analysts had expected 190,000 jobs to have been created in the month but 250,000 jobs blew that number apart. Little wonder the Dow Jones soared to a new all time record high soon after.
“Markets will expect a big number from official Non-Farm Payrolls data tomorrow, anything much less than 250,000 will be considered a disappointment.
The rally gave president Trump an excuse not to think about Michael Wolff’s new book; he’s just claimed that the Dow could go a lot higher yet....
JUST IN: Shortly after the Dow cracked 25K, President Trump said: "So, I guess our new number is 30,000" pic.twitter.com/fRzljkPF7V
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) January 4, 2018
Britain’s FTSE 100 also scaled new peaks, closing at a new all-time high. Other European stock markets also had a strong day, with the Stoxx 600 index up almost 1%.
Shares jumped as new data showed that eurozone companies were growing at the fastest rate since 2011.
Britain’s service sector also beat expectations, although there are still signs that Brexit uncertainty is hitting investment.
The rally began in Japan, where stocks jumped to their highest levels in 26 years as trading resumed after the New Year break.
That’s probably all for today (although I may pop back later with the close of Wall Street....)
Updated
According to US reporters, Donald Trump has set the Dow Jones a new target - 30,000 points.
Pres Trump also used remarks at immigration policy photo op to note stock market tops 25,000 DJIA. Notes that it's happening in just his 11th month (actually it's his 12th). "So I guess our new number is 30,000." Says the soaring stock market means jobs. pic.twitter.com/8Se7g4DmFM
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 4, 2018
Britain’s FTSE 250 index has hit a new closing high (again) too.
The index, which contains smaller companies than the FTSE 100, gained 0.37% today to close at 20,820 points.
Shares in Debenhams ended the day down almost 15%, at 30.34p.
That lowers its market capitalisation to just £370m, from £435m yesterday (according to my calculations anyway).
The news that sales since Christmas had been disappointing obviously worried the City.
Healthcare chain NMC Health was the best-performing member of the FTSE 100 today, helping to push it to new heights.
But Marks & Spencer dragged the index back, and was the worst-performing member (blame Debenham’s profit warning).
FTSE 100 at new closing peak
Boom! Britain’s FTSE 100 has hit a new record closing high, at 7,695.88 points.
The blue-chip index gained 24 points today, sending it over the previous record close - set on the final day of trading last year.
At one stage, the Footsie poked its nose over over 7,700 points. The rally was led by energy stocks, miners, technology stocks and financial firms.
Consumer companies lagged behind, though, following Debenham’s unexpected profit warning this morning.
Another record high for FTSE 100 - up 25 points at 7,695.88 pic.twitter.com/I2i1fSCqpC
— Callum Jones (@CallumIJones) January 4, 2018
Updated
There are just 10 minutes of the trading day left in Europe, and Britain’s FTSE 100 is on track to hit a new closing high.....
US president Donald Trump has welcomed today’s stock market rally - along with a non-too subtle attempt to take some of the credit:
Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018
Chipmaker Intel is bucking the trend, though, plunging by over 4.5% this morning.
That follows the discovery of a very serious security vulnerability in its processors, which could expose many millions of people to cybercriminals.
My colleague Sam Gibbs explains:
The flaws, named Meltdown and Spectre, were discovered by security researchers at Google’s Project Zero in conjunction with academic and industry researchersfrom several countries. Combined they affect virtually every modern computer, including smartphones, tablets and PCs from all vendors and running almost any operating system.
Meltdown is “probably one of the worst CPU bugs ever found”, said Daniel Gruss, one of the researchers at Graz University of Technology who discovered the flaw.
Here’s Sam’s latest story:
The Dow is continuing to hit new heights, and is now up 173 points or 0.7% at 25,097.
Wall Street titans Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are the biggest risers, both up around 2%, followed by American Express and IBM.
Here’s Associated Press’s take on today’s Wall Street action:
The Dow Jones industrial average traded above 25,000 points for the first time, blasting through another 1,000-point milestone.
The Dow’s latest breakthrough came in early trading Thursday and just five weeks after closing above 24,000 points for the first time.
Technology companies and banks had some of the biggest gains in early trading. Wells Fargo rose 1.9 percent and Microsoft rose 0.7 percent.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 9 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,722.
The Dow Jones industrials increased 118 points, or 0.5 percent, to 25,037. The Nasdaq climbed 16 points, or 0.2 percent, to 7,081.
Dow hits 25,000 points after strong jobs data
Update: Get out the Dow 25k hats!
The Dow Jones industrial average has just risen through the 25,000 point mark for the first time ever, as it keeps hitting new highs.
The bull market has swept shares upwards in the last year or so - 12 months ago, the Dow was below 20k.
Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K Dow 25K
— RANsquawk (@RANsquawk) January 4, 2018
Updated
US stocks hit fresh record highs
Boom! America’s stock market has hit a new alltime high at the start of trading.
Although the weather is pretty awful in New York, with temperatures below freezing, the mood on Wall Street is positively fizzling.
The Dow Jones industrial average has jumped by 67 points at the open, a gain of 0.27%, to 24,990 points for the first time ever.
Traders are impressed by today’s ADP jobs report, showing the strongest employment growth since March.
Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics is also impressed by today’s US jobs report.
He writes:
That 250,000 ADP gain, up from 185,000 in November, was probably skewed upwards by the recent strength of the official non-farm payrolls figures, however, which are used as one of the inputs. Nevertheless, after the earlier disruption caused by the hurricanes, the labour market clearly ended 2017 with some considerable momentum.
Looking at the ADP details, the gains were broad-based, with the manufacturing sector adding 9,000 jobs and construction adding 16,000. Within the services sector, the 72,000 gain in professional & business services was particularly encouraging, since jobs in that sector tend to be relatively well paid.
Job creation is great, but where is the wage growth, analysts at Danske Bank wonder.....
🇺🇸Strong #US jobs growth in December according to #ADP but what about the missing wage growth, which is puzzling most #FOMC members? Focus on avg. hourly earnings tomorrow when official jobs report is due out $EURUSD $GBPUSD pic.twitter.com/wApn2FBEtL
— Danske Bank Research (@Danske_Research) January 4, 2018
America’s labor market got a pre-Christmas boost, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, (which helps produce the ADP jobs report).
Zandi says:
“The job market ended the year strongly,”
“Robust Christmas sales prompted retailers and delivery services to add to their payrolls. The tight labor market will get even tighter, raising the specter that it will overheat.”
US jobs report smashes forecasts
NEWSFLASH: America’s private sector created many more jobs than expected last month, in the latest sign that the US economy is robust.
US companies hired 250,000 new workers in December, according to payroll firm ADP.
That’s the biggest monthly increase since March,
Economists had only expected an increase of 190,000; this suggests that tomorrow’s non-farm payroll report (the main US employment gauge) could be strong.
ADP NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT REPORT SHOWS U.S. EMPLOYMENT INCREASED BY 250,000 PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS IN DECEMBER pic.twitter.com/fzGD7cwtVS
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaOne) January 4, 2018
Service sector companies provided the bulk of the new jobs; including 72,000 new ‘professional and business’ roles.
US ADP Nonfarm Employment Report Dec 2017 https://t.co/IxnjpiNYGG pic.twitter.com/ieFq42CRXE
— LiveSquawk (@LiveSquawk) January 4, 2018
Cyprus has begun the year on an optimistic note, reports my colleague Helena Smith.
Cyprus’ statistics service announced that unemployment dropped by an unprecedented 15% last month reinforcing evidence that the euro zone’s most easterly member state is en route to making a remarkable economic recovery following the island’s near financial meltdown in 2013.
35,771 people were registered as unemployed in December, the lowest rates since December 2011, according to Cystat. The drop was attributed squarely to the construction sector which is rebounding with the recovery.
Unemployment in the midst of crisis reached an all-time high of 53,204 in February 2014. In his New Year address, president Nicos Anastasiades described 2017 as “a year of stability and development” saying”:
“I have no doubt that each and every one of us reasonably feel that hope is rising in our country.”
The leader, who is currently making the first ever visit to Saudi Arabia by a Cypriot head of state, has pledged to make sound fiscal policy a priority if he is re-elected in upcoming presidential elections.
Updated
It’s lunchtime! Now, for the average worker this means a quick scamper to the canteen, sandwich shop or supermarket (unless you’re organised enough to bring your own provisions).
But for Britain’s top bosses, it means something quite different. They’ve now earned the average UK annual wage since the start of 201 -- ie, in just two and a half working days.
My colleague Rupert Neate explains:
The chief executives of FTSE 100 companies are paid a median average of £3.45m a year, which works out at 120 times the £28,758 collected by full-time UK workers on average.
On an hourly basis the bosses will have earned more in less than three working days than the average employee will pick up this year, leading campaigners to dub the day “Fat Cat Thursday”.
Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said it was outrageous that bosses were picking up “salaries that look like telephone numbers” while workers were “suffering the longest pay squeeze since Napoleonic times”.
More here:
Aldi cheers a strong Christmas
German supermarket chain Aldi had a rather better Christmas than poor old Debenhams.
Strong demand for treats like mince pies, glitzy gammon joints and Irish cream liqueur helped Aldi to grow its total sales by 15% over the Christmas period.
This means Aldi probably achieved £10bn of sales in the UK last year, for the first time.
Martin Lane, Managing Editor of money.co.uk, says Aldi’s reputation for low prices and bargains means it is thriving in the current economic climate:
“As a nation of shoppers, we’re looking after the pound in our pocket more and more, and with their “specially selected” premium items Aldi is offering the same package as the other big 4 retailers but without the expensive price tag.
“Aldi’s Specialbuys and Super 6 offers continue to make headlines and get customers through their doors and over the festive season their competitive Christmas veg prices made them a huge contender.
“Aldi’s ever-increasing popularity suggests there’s no sign of a slowdown for the discount giant.”
Debenhams shares are still being thumped by investors.
They’re currently down 16% at just under 30p, down from 35.56p last night.
That has knocked Debenham’s market capitalisation down from £435m to just £365m - which makes Debs quite a minor player.
In comparison, Marks & Spencer is worth £5.2bn, and Next is valued at over £7bn. WH Smiths, the newsagent, has a market cap of £2.5bn while Sports Direct’s is £2.1bn.
But Debenham’s plight is best illustrated with a comparison to Fever-Tree, a company founded less than 14 years ago to produce high-end tonic water and other soft drinks. It’s now valued at almost £2.6bn!
Today's fall in the share price of Debenhams (Est. 1778) makes its stock market value one seventh that of posh tonic water firm Fever-Tree (Est. 2004).
— Rob Davies (@ByRobDavies) January 4, 2018
Debenhams profit warning: What the experts say
David Madden of CMC Markets:
Debenhams had a disappointing Christmas period and the retailer has issued a profit warning. The retailer cited a ‘volatile and competitive’ market for the drop in sales. Debenhams now predicts that full-year profits will be within the range of £55 million to £65 million, which is a considerable decline on the previous forecast of £83 million. The stock has been in decline for over five years, and if this trend continues it could target 20p.
Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown:
‘Strong growth for its digital offering has failed to save Debenhams from a miserable end to the year. Customers turned out for Christmas, but refused to put their hands in their pockets in the lead up to the festive period, or indeed the Boxing Day sales.
Debenhams has been forced to cut prices to persuade shoppers to part with their cash, and as a result margins have been squeezed, profits have been significantly downgraded, and the share price has taken a massive hit.
Lee Wild, head of equity strategy at interactive investor:
Turns out Next may have given retail sector investors a false sense of security yesterday. Debenhams brought things down to earth with a bump, warning that the fourth quarter of 2017 was bookended by weak trade and that heavy discounting has damaged margins.
Getting back to Debenhams.... CEO Sergio Bucher has been speaking to reporters following this morning’s profits warning.
Bucher says that Debenhams will speed up its cost-cutting plans - although it’s not planning to close stores (on top of the 10 already earmarked for closure)
Bucher says:
“There will be some jobs that will go - we’ll be creating jobs as well.
That’s what happens when you reorganise teams.”
In other news, consumer credit growth in the UK has slowed - perhaps a sign that people are cutting back their spending.
Annual credit growth slowed to 8.5% in the three months to November, new Bank of England figures show, down from 9.3% in the quarter to October.
The pick-up in service sector growth in December suggests that Britain has shrugged off its ‘soft patch’ early last year, says Kallum Pickering of Berenberg bank.
But, he still thinks it would have done better without the looming exit from the EU:
The UK economy probably expanded by 1.8% yoy in 2017. While this is below the 2% annual average for the post-Lehman period, it is probably at, or even a little above, what the UK can manage on trend outside of the EU. To be fair, relative to the market’s very depressed growth expectations for 2017 following the Brexit vote in 2016, the UK did much better than expected last year.That is, however, not to say that Brexit did not hurt. Growth in the US and the Eurozone, the UK’s major trading partners, accelerated to well above the average of recent years. The uncertainty from Brexit prevented the UK from fully enjoying the tailwind from the synchronised global upswing. Without Brexit, the UK economy would have expanded by at least 2.5% last year.
UK service sector growth rises, but doubts remain
Breaking: Britain’s service sector picked up pace in December, suggesting the economy is holding up well.
The UK services PMI, produced by data firm Markit, has jumped to 54.2 for last month, from 53.8 in November.
Any reading over 50 shows growth, and this is the second-highest score since last April.
Companies reported that business activity growth picked up last month; however, new work and employment numbers rose at a slower pace.
Overall, the PMI survey indicates that the UK grew at a pretty steady pace at the end of last year....
Markit PMI "the survey data are consistent with the UK economy having grown 0.4-0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2017. " #GDP #GBP So steady growth seems to be continuing in the UK
— Shaun Richards (@notayesmansecon) January 4, 2018
However, there are also signs that Brexit uncertainty is deterring some clients from spending money, undermining Britain’s longer-term prospects,
Markit’s Chris Williamson explains:
Digging into the details behind the resilient strength signalled by the headline numbers, the survey data reveal an economy that is beset with uncertainty about the outlook, which is in turn dampening business spending and investment.
“Trends in hiring and business investment in fixed assets such as offices are showing signs of deteriorating, as is expenditure on IT, computing and other business services as worries about Brexit result in delayed spending decisions. Rising price pressures are meanwhile also hurting consumer- facing companies in particular.
Nearly time to discover how Britain’s service sector fared last month...
Stand by your desks! UK Services and Composite PMI are due in a few minutes #GBP #GDP
— Shaun Richards (@notayesmansecon) January 4, 2018
Eurozone growth hits near seven-year high
Breaking: Europe’s companies have posted their strongest growth since 2011.
The eurozone composite PMI, which measures activity across the region, jumped to 58.1 in December, up from November’s 57.5.
The service sector PMI rose to 56.6, up from 56.2 a month earlier.
Companies reported that new orders strengthened last month, with manufacturers seeing the steepest increase in new business since 2000. This encouraged them to keep hiring more staff.
Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit says the eurozone gathered momentum at the end of last year:
“A stellar end to 2017 for the eurozone rounded off the best year for over a decade, continuing to confound widely-held fears that rising political uncertainty would curb economic growth. At 56.4, the average PMI reading for 2017 was the highest annual trend since 2006. Manufacturing is enjoying its best growth spell since data were first collected over two decades ago while the service sector closed off its best year since 2007.
“The survey data are consistent with the quarterly rate of GDP growth accelerating to an impressive 0.8% in Q4, with no sign of momentum being lost as we move into 2018.
New work is flowing to companies at a rate not seen for a decade and backlogs of uncompleted work are rising sharply. Hiring is consequently at a 17-year high as firms look to boost capacity to meet rising workloads. Optimism about the outlook also turned higher in December.
Debenhams’ profit warning has spooked other UK retailers too.
Marks & Spencer are down 2.7%, the worst performer on the FTSE 100, on fears that its Christmas may have been less sparkling than hoped. Dixons Carphone have dipped too.
Connor Campbell of Spreadex says Debenham is in a tough fight:
After Wednesday saw Next provide its retail peers with some post-Christmas optimism, Debenhams gave the sector a reality check this Thursday as it became the first casualty of 2018.
A 2.6% drop in like-for-like sales following a ‘volatile and competitive’ festive period forced the firm to issue a profit warning, with the ailing high street staple forecasting its full year figures to come in somewhere between of £55m to £65m, way off the £83m expected by analysts.
Inevitably this caused a wave of investors to jump ship, the stock plunging 20% to sub-28p – Debenhams now faces an uphill battle to avoid becoming the next BHS.
Retail analyst Steve Dresser reckons Debenhams has only itself to blame, for overpricing its Christmas gift offerings...
A stark reminder that you may have got away with this in the past @Debenhams but with consumer confidence low... Customers aren't stupid. 4 bottles = £6 in most retailers elsewhere... Insult pricing damages value proposition. pic.twitter.com/ZCgEX9q8um
— Steve Dresser (@dresserman) January 4, 2018
20% off! Debenhams shares plunge
OUCH! Shares in Debenhams have plunged by 20% at the start of trading, following its shock profits warning.
They tumbled from 35.6p to as low as 28p, as traders punish the company for slashing its profit forecasts this morning.
Debenhams is the first UK retailer to suffer the ignominy of a post-Christmas profits warning this year, as retail analyst Nick Bubb explains:
We said yesterday that there was no sign so far of anybody having to bring forward their scheduled Christmas trading announcements from next week…but poor old Debenhams has stepped up to the plate today, to warn that weak gross margins (-150 bps) and a poor Sale last week have hit the bottom-line.
Full-year profits (to end August) are likely to be down to £55m-65m, versus a modest consensus forecast of about £83m, despite finding an extra £10m of cost savings...
Sergio Bucher, the new CEO of Debenhams, wails: “The market has been challenging and particularly promotional in some of our key seasonal categories and we have responded in order to remain competitive for our customers, which has impacted our profit performance”.
FTSE 100 hits another record high
Newsflash: Britain’s FTSE 100 has hit a fresh record high at the start of trading.
The blue-chip index rose by 27 points to 7,698 points, just over the previous record set on the final trading session of 2017.
That follows the rally in Japan this morning, and last night’s record close on Wall Street.
Updated
Debenhams in shock profits warning
High street retailer Debenhams has sent a shiver through the City this morning, reports my colleague Angela Monaghan:
Debenhams has issued a surprise profits warning after a disappointing festive season and a failure to entice shoppers despite heavy discounting in the post- Christmas sales period.
The department store chain struck a gloomy tone as it brought forward by a week its Christmas trading update to warn the current UK trading environment was “volatile and highly competitive with weaker demand in some more discretionary areas”.
Debenhams said profits for the full year were now likely to be in the range of £55m to £65m, sharply below the £83m expected by the City.
“We took tactical promotional action to improve our performance which resulted in a stronger 6 week Christmas period against tough comparatives... However, the first week of post-Christmas sale was below expectations despite further markdown investment, particularly in the highly seasonal gift category,” the retailer said.
Like-for-like sales in the UK - which strip out the impact of sales at stores open for less than a year - fell 2.6% in the 17 weeks to 30 December. Like-for-like sales overall were down 1.8%.
Sergio Bucher, chief executive of the retailer, said: “The market has been challenging and particularly promotional in some of our key seasonal categories and we have responded in order to remain competitive for our customers, which has impacted our profit performance.
Updated
Nationwide: London house prices fell last year
Just in: London was the worst-performing part of the UK property sector last year, according to the Nationwide building society.
The average house price in the capital fell by 0.5% during 2017, Nationwide reports, while the UK average rose by 2.6%.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, says mounting pressure on household incomes held house price growth back (good news if you’re tying to get onto the housing ladder).
Gardner adds:
“The significant disparity in house prices across the UK has been a recurring theme in recent years. In this respect, 2017 saw the beginnings of a shift, as rates of house price growth in the south of England moderated towards those prevailing in the rest of the country.
“London saw a particularly marked slowdown, with prices falling in annual terms for the first time in eight years, albeit by a modest 0.5%. London ended the year the weakest performing region for the first time since 2004.
But despite this slowdown, the average London house still costs over £470k -- or more than double the national average....
Investors ‘flocked’ to the Japanese stock market today to buy shares, says Japan Today, driven by expectations that the markets will rally in 2018.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 741.39 points, or 3.26%, from Friday at 23,506.33, its highest close since Jan 7, 1992. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange finished 46.26 points, or 2.55%, higher at 1,863.82.
Tokyo markets were closed from Monday to Wednesday for the New Year holidays.
The Nikkei posted the largest daily gain since November 2016 as every industry category on the main section gained ground, led by oil and coal product, securities and electric appliance issues.
The agenda: Japanese shares jump on optimism
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.
World stock markets have started the new year in good heart, on hopes that economic growth will be robust this year.
Over in Tokyo, Japan’s stock market has surged by over 3% to close at its highest level in 26 years, on the first trading day of the year. Energy and financials stocks led the rally.
Traders were in good spirits after the US stock markets closed at (yet another) record high last night, showing that the bull market still has legs.
Optimism was also boosted by new data showing that Japan and China’s service sectors both performed well in December, with growth accelerating.
Jasper Lawler of London Capital Group says:
Japanese stocks returned from holiday trading with a bang. The Topix index struck a 26 year, tracking the optimism that’s seen Wall Street close at record highs in the past two trading sessions. The energy sector was leading the charge in Asia after oil prices climbed again.
At the same time activity in Japan’s manufacturing sector rose to a 4 year high according to survey data.
Later this morning we get service sector reports from the UK and the eurozone, which will probably confirm that Europe’s economy ended 2017 strongly.
We also get a fresh healthcheck on Britain’s property market, with new house price figures from Nationwide and the latest mortgage approvals numbers.
Plus, we’ll be tracking the UK retail sector, as high street retailer Debenhams has just released a profits warning!
Debenhams warns on profit after disappointing Christmas. Full year profits to be in the region of £55m to £65m. market had been expecting £83m
— Richard Fletcher (@fletcherr) January 4, 2018
That’s a blow, a day after Next surprised the City with decent-looking results yesterday.
Here’s the agenda:
- 7am GMT: Nationwide house price survey for December
- 9am GMT: Eurozone service sector PMI for December
- 9.30am GMT: UK service sector PMI for December
- 9.30am GMT: UK mortgage approvals and consumer credit data
- 1.30pm GMT: US initial jobless figures
Updated
