UK Jobless Rate Hits 7-Year Low, BoE to Note Cooler Pay Growth

Britain’s jobless rate has fallen to its lowest level in more than seven years but pay growth was a bit slower than expected, suggesting the labour market is not hot enough to speed up a Bank of England interest rate hike.

Britain’s unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent in the three months to August, down from 5.5 percent in the three months to July, the Office for National Statistics said.

It was the lowest jobless rate since the second quarter of 2008, before the worst of the financial crisis, and below a median forecast of 5.5 percent in a Reuters poll of economists.

Investors focused initially on the wage growth figures that were slightly weaker than forecast but sterling recovered from an initial fall as economists highlighted the strong job creation numbers.

The number of people in employment jumped by 140,000, pushing the employment rate to 73.6 percent, the highest since records began in 1971. The number of unemployed people was down by 79,000, the biggest fall since the three months to January.

Reuters

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Former Craig

Former Craig

Former Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA at OANDA
Based in London, Craig Erlam joined OANDA in 2015 as a market analyst. With many years of experience as a financial market analyst and trader, he focuses on both fundamental and technical analysis while producing macroeconomic commentary. His views have been published in the Financial Times, Reuters, The Telegraph and the International Business Times, and he also appears as a regular guest commentator on the BBC, Bloomberg TV, FOX Business and SKY News. Craig holds a full membership to the Society of Technical Analysts and is recognised as a Certified Financial Technician by the International Federation of Technical Analysts.