“U.K. jobless claims unexpectedly fell in December and a quarterly measure of unemployment also dropped, underlining the resilience of the labor market in the face of a weak economic recovery.
Unemployment claims declined by 12,100 from November to 1.56 million, the lowest since June 2011, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. In the quarter through November,unemployment measured by International Labour Organisation methods fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest since the three months through April 2011. The report also showed that wage growth slowed.
The jobs market remains the bright spot in the economy, which may have shrank in the fourth quarter and is facing the threat of a triple-dip recession. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to leave its bond-purchase programunchanged this month and said today recent developments “strengthened” the view among some officials that no more stimulus is needed.
“It continues to be surprising that employment is growing so strongly when the economy is flat-lining,” said Samuel Tombs, an economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London. “The weakness of pay growth helps. The economy may grow this year, albeit slowly.”
The median forecast of 28 economists in a Bloomberg News Survey was for jobless claims to increase by 500 in December. The unemployment rate on that basis remained at 4.8 percent.
