UK unemployment rate slipps to 7.7%

British unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 7.7 percent in the June-August period from the previous three months, said the country's Office for National Statistics (ONS) Wednesday. According to the ONS, there were 2.49 million unemployed people in Britain in the three-month period ending in August, down 18,000 from the previous three months, data showed. "The employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 for June to August 2013 was 71.7 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from March to May 2013. There were 29.87 million people in employment aged 16 and over, up 155,000 from March to May 2013." said the ONS. Year on year, British employees' total pay rose by 0.7 percent in the June-August period, and regular pay rose by 0.8 percent, data also showed. Claims for unemployment benefits, however, fell by 41,700 in September 2013 from August, the most significant decrease since June 1997, said ONS. "The latest UK labor market figures provide more evidence to support the MPC's (Money Policy Committee of the Bank of England) view that even a fairly robust economic recovery will bring unemployment down only slowly," said Capital Economics, a London-based economy analysis company. "And remember that even if unemployment does reach 7 percent earlier than the MPC predicted in August's Inflation Report, this will not be an automatic trigger for a rate rise." the company said in a statement. The Bank of England, the British central bank, on August 7 said it would maintain the ultra-low interest rate of 0.5 percent and its financial assets purchasing program until the unemployment rate drop to 7 percent. According to the bank's projections in its August Inflation Report, the scenario would not be highly likely until the second quarter of 2016.