UK unemployment falls 5.6% to 1.84m between December & February, ONS says

Unemployment in Britain fell 5.6% to 1.84m between December and February, figures released on Friday showed.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in March fell by 20,700 to 772,400, meaning the jobless rate has fallen 0.1% to 5.6% in the three months to January.

Employment hit a new record high of 31.04m, growing by 248,000 from the previous quarter and registering the biggest increase in a three-month since April 2014.

On Friday, ONS said the unemployment rate is now at its lowest rate since July 2008 and has fallen 2.3% from the level at the time of the last election in 2010.

Average weekly earnings in the three months to February, excluding bonuses, rose 1.8% year-on-year but declined 0.1% from January.

"With productivity starting to edge up, these rates of pay growth are still not strong enough to suggest that inflation will swiftly return to the MPC’s 2% target," said Samuel Tombs, senior UK economist at Capital Economics.

"As a result, the likelihood of an interest rate rise within the next year still looks slim."