UK unemployment down to 7.8%

The number of people out of work in the UK fell by 82,000 between August and October, 2012, to 2.51 million, official figures have shown here Wednesday. The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous three months. It was the biggest quarterly fall in unemployment since 2001. The Office for National Statistics also said that the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell 3,000 to 1.58 million in November. Total pay was up 1.8 percent compared with the same period last year. Employment rose 40,000 to 29.6 million, which was the highest figure since records began in 1971. "We see more people looking for work and actually finding work, so I think there's a really strong labour market there," Mark Hoban, minister for work and pensions, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). "I think there's more flexibility in the labour market, although this month we've seen a big increase in full-time jobs and no movement at all in the number of part-time jobs." Employment in the public sector fell for the 12th consecutive month, dropping 24,000 to 5.7 million, which was outstripped by a 65,000 rise in private sector employment to 23.8 million. "The main disappointment was the fact that despite the gains in employment, there is no pick-up in wage growth, which remains at 1.8 percent, year on year, " said James Knightley at ING. "The fact that UK employment is rising, consumer confidence is up and anecdotal evidence of retail sales haven't been too bad, offers some hope that the domestic situation in the UK is stabilising".