Unemployment at lowest level for seven years, figures show

As a whole the United Kingdom has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union, which has an average of 9.5%, with only Germany, the Czech Republic and Malta having lower rates.

Commenting on the data, Nick Palmer, an ONS labour market statistician, said: “Although there has been a small rise in the unemployment level, employment is also up on the previous three months, with its headline rate returning to a record high”.

The number in work rose to 31.12 million, or 73.6% of people of working age, the highest rate since comparable records began in 1971.

Statistics for the period of June to August 2015 reveal an unemployment rate of 8.6% – up from 8.5% in May to July of this year.

The number of people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance increased by 500 between August and September, to stand at 71,000.

“Real incomes are going up which is good for domestic activity, so we think May will probably be when (the Bank of England) starts raising interest rates”, said ING currency strategist Chris Turner.

However, consumer price inflation in September turned negative once more, according to figures released on Tuesday.

While analysts had expected both total and regular pay to climb above 3pc over the period, James Knightley, an economist at ING, said low inflation would continue to boost pay packets in real terms.

Britain’s unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to its lowest level since mid-2008 in the three months to August but pay growth was a touch slower than expected by economists.

It looks like the basic state pension will go up by about £3.35 a week from next April.

Does it mean that pensioners continue to do better under austerity than younger families? But public sector workers are increasingly falling behind.