That strategy continues and the latter part of this Chapter shows how the Government is pursuing further essential reforms. The UK labour market is already performing better. Employment and unemployment 8.7 Employment began to grow, and unemployment to fall, at earlier stages in the current recovery than in previous economic cycles, suggesting that the labour market is now more responsive to changes in output. Employment grew by over 1.5 million in the last economic cycle, the best performance during an economic cycle since 1960. Growth in the private sector was as strong as in the public sector.
Employment is high by comparison with other countries.
Claimant unemployment has fallen by over 600,000 since labour market recovery began, and UK unemployment now stands more than two percentage points below the EU average. For the first time since the 1960s, the most recent peak in unemployment was below the peak in the previous economic cycle. The most recent peak in long term unemployment was almost 290,000 below the peak in the previous cycle and long term unemployment remains substantially lower now than at a similar stage in the last cycle. The dramatic improvement in the UK's industrial relations continues. 1994 saw the lowest levels of industrial action in over 100 years of strike statistics.