UK unemployment falls to 1.6 million

National Statistics said.

The employment rate was steady at a record 74.5%, while wage growth picked up pace.

Average weekly earnings excluding bonuses increased by 2.7% compared with a year earlier.

Growth in pay including bonuses rose 0.2 percentage points to 2.8% for the year to November.

However, the number of people in work slipped by 9,000 to just over 31.8 million, the ONS said.
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It was the second consecutive report to show a decline in the number of people in work - the first back-to-back fall since mid-2015.

The number of full-time workers was 209,000 higher at 23.25 million people, while the total of part-time employees jumped 86,000 to 8.55 million.

Employment minister Damian Hinds described the figures as encouraging and highlighted the "strength and resilience" of the UK labour market.

David Freeman, ONS senior statistician, said: "While employment is little changed on the quarter, the rate remains at an historic high."

"The rate at which pay is increasing continues to pick up in cash terms, though it remains moderate," he added.

The claimant count fell by 10,100 in December to 797,800.

Appropriate scepticism is due, but it looks very much like growth in the labour force, which we have taken for granted for years, has ground slowly to a halt from a peak last July.

Within the labour market is another number, more perhaps of political than economic significance. But it is an official statistic and one that those who successfully campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union would point to: where the newly employed people were born.

These data were first published in November and are for the July to September period, but are nevertheless worth noting.

The number of UK-born people working in the UK rose by 37,000. The number of non-UK born people working in Britain rose by 430,000.

Next month we will get the updated numbers for nationality and birth in the workforce and therefore have a better idea of whether it has anything to do with the Brexit vote.
UK economy
UK unemployment falls to 1.6 million