In the three months to November, UK unemployment rate rose to 5.0%, below expectation of 5.1%. That was 1.2% higher than a year ago, and 0.6% higher than the previous quarter. 5% was also the highest level since early 2016.
Though, totally hours worked showed continued signs of recovery, up 89m, or 10%, to 979.9m hours. Average earnings excluding bonus rose 3.6% 3moy, versus expectation of 3.0% 3moy. Average earnings including bonus rose 3.6% 3moy, also above expectation of 2.8% 3moy.
UK claimant count rose just 7k in December, must lower than expectation of 47.5k. Still, at 2.6m, the total is 113.2%, or 1.4m, above March 2020’s level.
