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mpc: 7 the quarterly fall in full-time employment had been the largest (on a consistent basis) since 1996 Q1. Average weekly hours per worker had fallen by 0.3%, compared with Q2. A29 Contrary to weaker LFS employment growth, survey-based evidence had not indicated any significant change in employers' demand for staff. The latest CIPS surveys of the construction and service sectors had suggested that employment growth in November had continued at a similar rate to the previous two months, while the CIPS survey of manufacturing had suggested that employment was falling less rapidly. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) survey had reported that shortages of agency staff had widened further in November. A30 LFS unemployment had fallen by 36,000 in Q3, a smaller decline than had been seen in recent monthly data releases. The LFS unemployment rate over this period had been 5.4%, which was down 0.1 percentage points compared with Q2, but was 0.1 percentage points higher than the rate for the period June to August. The slower decline in unemployment had been mainly accounted for by a much smaller fall in short-term unemployment. The claimant count had fallen by 48,700 in Q3, but had increased by 3,500 in October. A31 The working-age inactivity rate had been 21.0% in Q3, unchanged from the previous quarter. A32 Overall, there had been little change in the pattern of earnings growth. Whole-economy headline (three-month average) earnings growth had risen by 0.1 percentage points to 4.1% in Q3. Private-sector headline earnings growth had risen by 0.2 percentage points to 4.3%, while headline growth in the public sector had fallen by the same amount to 3.3%. In the manufacturing sector, headline earnings growth had remained unchanged at 4.3%. Earnings in the private service sector had also grown at a headline rate of 4.3%, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous month. A33 Annual earnings growth in the year to September had been 4.3%, up slightly from the previous month. Historical AEI data had been revised to reflect updated seasonal adjustment factors, revised employment weights and other minor technical adjustments. The overall effect of these changes had been small, although the revisions had given regular pay growth a flatter profile since the beginning of the year than had previously been reported. The contributions of regular pay growth and bonus payments to overall earnings growth in September had been broadly unchanged