* Pace of decline in employees on payrolls slows
* Unemployment rate holds steady at 3.9%
* Half a million out-of-work people said they were in work
* Vacancies hit lowest level on record
* Total pay falls by most since 2009
* Data is "calm before storm" - KPMG
(Adds details, background)
By William Schomberg and David Milliken
LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - The slide in Britain's jobs
market eased in June, data showed, although the figures did not
include the most recent slew of job losses and analysts said
they represented a "calm before the storm" caused by the
coronavirus' hit to the economy.
The number of employees on company payrolls tumbled by
649,000 between March and June, but the largest falls came at
the start of the lockdown, the Office for National Statistics
said on Thursday.
The number of people on payrolls fell by just over 74,400 in
June, a much smaller decline than April's 450,000 and May's
124,000.
Separate figures showed Britain's unemployment rate
unexpectedly held at 3.9% in the three months to May.
A Reuters poll of economists pointed to a rise in the
unemployment rate to 4.2%.
An ONS official said the unemployment rate was held down by
around half a million people who were away from work because of
the pandemic and receiving no pay but who said they believed
they still had a job.
Even so, the number of people in employment in the three
months to May fell by the most since 2011, down 126,000, driven
mostly by self-employed people, the ONS said.
"It's clear that we’re in the middle of a severe economic
downturn," finance minister Rishi Sunak said.
"I know people are anxious about losing their jobs and
incomes. As I said last week, we will never accept unemployment
as an unavoidable outcome, which is why I set out our clear plan
last week to protect, support and create jobs."
Sunak last week announced his latest, 30 billion-pound
($37.6 billion) round of measures to stem an expected surge in
unemployment, including the payment of bonuses to companies
which take back furloughed workers who are currently protected
by his job-retention scheme.
But since then a string of companies have announced layoff
plans ranging from private security company G4S to
retailers Boots and John Lewis.
Thursday's data showed the number of people claiming
Universal Credit welfare unexpectedly fell in June, dropping by
28,000 to 2.631 million, but remained more than double its
figure as recently in March.
The figure includes people who are in work but are entitled
to support due to their low income.
Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said the data
"represented the calm before the storm" as the government’s
furlough scheme shielded the labour market.
"But as the Job Retention Scheme unwinds in coming months,
the full impact of the recession on unemployment is likely to be
revealed."
There was another sign of the broader weakness in the labour
market in the number of vacancies, which fell in the three
months to June to the lowest level since the data series began
in 2001 at 333,000, 23% lower than the previous record low in
2009.
The data showed a hit to pay, pushed down by the large
number of people on the government's emergency job retention
scheme, most of whom have been receiving 80% of their pay.
Average total pay, including bonuses, fell by an annual
-0.3%, the first negative figure since 2014 and its biggest fall
since 2009. Growth in regular pay slowed to 0.7%.
($1 = 0.7971 pounds)
(Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken and
Hugh Lawson)
