U.K. Jobless Rate Remains Stable; Employment Rate At Record High

(RTTNews) - The U.K. unemployment rate held steady at a decade-low in the three months to March period and the employment rate hit a record high, reflecting that the labor market weathered uncertainty on the EU referendum.

The Office for National Statistics showed that the ILO jobless rate remained at 5.1 percent, unchanged from February and matched economists' expectations.

At the same time, the employment rate was 74.2 percent in the three months to March, the highest since the comparable records began in 1971.

The number of people in work increased by 44,000 from December to 31.58 million. There were 1.69 million unemployed in March, little changed compared to December.

Average earnings, including bonuses, increased by 2 percent compared to 1.9 percent in the three months to February. The annual pace of growth was forecast to ease to 1.7 percent.

Excluding bonuses, earnings grew 2.1 percent.

In April, the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits decreased by 2,400 from March, confounding expectations for an increase of 4,500.

The claimant count fell to 2.1 percent in April, as expected, from 2.2 percent in March.

Although there were some bright spots in today's labor market figures, on the whole they offered a further indication that the economic slowdown has sapped the jobs recovery of its recent vigour, Paul Hollingsworth, an economist at Capital Economics, said.

Assuming that the UK votes to "remain" next month, a bit of a bounce-back in economic activity later this year is expected, and as such the recovery in jobs and earnings is likely to pick up some pace again.

Elsewhere, the Agents' summary of business conditions published by the Bank of England showed that labor cost growth had edged higher, following the introduction of the National Living Wage.

Also, employment growth intentions had become less negative in the manufacturing sector. Business services intentions had eased slightly, but remained consistent with modest growth, the report showed.