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Jobless rate in the United Kingdom maintained tough resilience in response to the Brexit vote ruled out during the European Union referendum held on June 23. The unemployment rate in the region remained at an 11-year low during the three months ended July.
UK’s rate of unemployment fell 39,000 to 1.63 million, leaving jobless rate at 4.9 percent (matching median forecast), data released by the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday. The number of people in work rose 174,000 to 31.8 million, highest on record.
Further, in July alone, unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent, lowest since September 2005. Also, earnings excluding bonus payments slowed to 2.1 percent, against a median forecast 2.2 percent. Annual growth in average weekly earnings in the three months to July slipped to 2.3 percent from the revised 2.5 percent from a month before, though this was less than the slowdown to 2.1 percent economists had forecast.
Moreover, employment fell by 105,000 in July alone, most since March 2015, while the number of people claiming jobless benefits rose 2,400 to 771,000 in August (median forecast was for an increase of 1,800). The average earnings growth slowed to 2.3 percent between May and July (Bloomberg median forecast 2.1 percent). Lastly, the number of job vacancies in the economy climbed 3,000 to 752,000 in three months through August.
The recently released data reveal the fact that Britain has maintained to withstand the shock of the June 23 Brexit vote. The Bank of England expects unemployment to rise gradually, reaching 5.6 percent by mid-2018, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, the yield on the benchmark 10-year gilts, which moves inversely to its price, rose 1-1/2 basis points to 0.927 percent, the super-long 40-year bond yield jumped 2-1/2 basis points to 1.484 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year bond slid 2-1/2 basis points to 0.184 percent. The benchmark FTSE 100 traded 0.52 percent higher at 6,700.30 by 09:30 GMT.
