Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as more firms fall into insolvency last monthUK jobs market dodges hit from economic slowdownVictoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor, says there are signs of slack in today’s jobs market figures:While the headline unemployment rate remains unchanged, there are some signs of slack in the labour market with a fall in job vacancies across 16 out of 18 industry sectors, highlighting the cautiousness among businesses across the economy towards hiring.Plus the UK employment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points during the quarter to 75.7%.A rapid cooling will reassure the Bank of England that rising rates are having their desired affected, though for workers it could mean that the recent period of rising real wages is ending soon.“Data limitations mean that the outlook for jobs murky. While vacancies keep falling, there’s no sign yet of a big rise in unemployment that some people fear.” Continue reading...