British unemployment rate drops in June-August period

The number of unemployed people in Britain fell by 50,000 to 2.53 million in the three months ending in August, official data showed on Wednesday. The unemployment rate dropped to 7.9 percent in the June-August period, down from 8.1 percent in the previous three months, according to a statement of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The number of people claiming jobless benefits, meanwhile, retreated by 4,000 in September to 1.57 million. That was the third monthly drop in a row since July and the lowest total since July 2011. The ONS data also revealed that Britain's employment rate for those aged between 16 and 64 stood at 71.3 percent, up 0.5 percent quarter on quarter and 0.9 percent year on year, with the number of the employed growing by 212,000 over the previous quarter to 29.59 million. The employment rate is the highest since April 2009. "A quarterly rise of more than 150,000 employees offers the strongest evidence for some time that the jobs marketmight be gathering genuine momentum, with growth now being driven by firms rather than the self-employed" said Gerwyn Davies, Labor Market Adviser at the Chartered Institute of ,Personnel and Development (CIPD). Meanwhile, the ONS data showed that average earning of the British people increased by 1.7 percent year on year, and was up by 0.1 percent from May to July 2012. "Almost every economic indicator is tentatively improving; with redundancies falling, vacancies rising and increases in basic pay edging to a level close to the current rate of inflation," Davies said. "However, with around a third of this increase in employment being taken up with temporary work, the figures also highlight the uncertainty still felt by many employers," Davies noted.