(MENAFN– ecpulse) U.K. ILO unemployment for the three months through April slipped to the lowest level in more than five years as recovery strengthens.
The jobless rate retreated to 6.6 percent in the quarter ended April from 6.8 percent, compared to forecasts of 6.7 percent, according to the ILO calculations.
The number of job seekers retreated by 161,000 to 2.17 million, while the number of workers edged up 345,000 to 30.5 million.
In May, jobless claims dropped for a 19 th straight month by 25,400 from a revised of 28,400 drop in April and median forecast of 25,000 fall.
Claimant count rate edged down to 3.2 percent in the quarter through April, marking its lowest level since October 2008.
The BOE has mentioned that raising interest rate will not only depend on unemployment rate but also on other measures such as business surveys and the number of hours worked. In other words, a broader range of spare capacity.
The BOE decided to hold its monetary stance this month amid signs of remarkable improvement in the British economy.
Britain grew a robust 0.8 percent in the first three months of this year, after expanding 0.7 percent in the previous three months.
The recent data has signaled recovery is moving on the right track, raising expectations the U.K. would be among the first developed nations to fully recover from the repercussions of the financial crisis.
However, policymakers opted to hold their monetary stance until the slack in the labor market is used up, referring that MPC members are divided on the amount of capacity remaining.
As of 08:40 GMT, the pound advanced versus the U.S. dollar to trade around 1.6781 after visiting a bottom of 1.6736.
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