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mpc: 7 volatile than LFS employment. Most of the increase in LFS employment had been in full-time employment, which rose by 62,000 (0.3%). Part-time employment had risen by 4,000 (0.1%). As a result, employment growth in full-time equivalent terms had also increased. Total hours worked had fallen by 0.3% in the three months to October compared with the previous three months, and average hours had fallen. A26 Workforce jobs had been revised following the annual benchmarking exercise to make the data consistent with the most recent Annual Employment Survey. The impact of these revisions on the data, however, had been relatively small. Annual productivity growth, calculated using workforce jobs, had increased 0.5 percentage points in Q3, to 1.2%. A27 Survey data confirmed the weaker picture on employment growth. The CIPS manufacturing survey in December had shown manufacturing employment falling again, after two months of stability. In the CIPS services and construction surveys employment had continued to grow, but more slowly than in recent months. The Manpower survey for Q4 had indicated a slowdown in employment growth in all sectors. A28 Despite the weaker employment growth, skill shortages persisted. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) survey in December had shown that shortages of agency staff had increased again. Similarly, the Bank's Agents had reported that skills shortages persisted and, in some areas, had worsened. New vacancies reported to jobcentres had also fallen in November, while outflows (including placings) had risen, although both flows were volatile. A29 Unemployment had continued to fall on both the LFS and claimant count measures. LFS unemployment had fallen by 12,000 and the unemployment rate by 0.1 percentage point in the three months to October compared to the previous three months. Claimant count unemployment had fallen by 10,600 in November from the previous month. Short-term LFS unemployment had fallen a little, while long-term unemployment had risen. Dispersion of unemployment rates across regions had declined slightly in Q3. However, dispersion of unemployment rates at the county and travel-to-work area level suggested that regional data may understate the increase in dispersion in recent years.