UK unemployment rate at 6-year low of 6 percent


Save Story

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

LONDON (AP) — Official figures show Britain's unemployment rate was 6 percent in the three months to October, its lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis.

That's down on the previous three-month period's 6.2 percent.

The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that 1.96 million people were unemployed in the quarter, 63,000 less than the previous quarter. That is the smallest quarterly fall in a year.

The agency said average pay including bonuses in the three months to October was 1.4 percent higher than a year earlier. That's more than inflation, which is running at 1 percent, subdued by falling oil prices.

IHS Global Insight analyst Howard Archer was encouraged by the earnings news but cautioned that the increase was modest, and that "consumers have faced a prolonged squeeze on their purchasing power."

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent Business stories

Related topics

Business
The Associated Press

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast