The unemployment rate in the United Kingdom was largely unchanged in the trimester to January compared to the previous quarter to land at 3.7%, the Office for National Statistics reported on Tuesday. The reading was slightly lower than initially expected.
The employment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to reach 75.7% in the corresponding trimester, with the figure being driven by the increase of part-time employees and self-employed workers. The economic inactivity rate declined 0.2 percentage points in the quarter to arrive at 21.3%.
The estimated number of vacancies fell by 51,000 on the quarter to 1,124,000. The average weekly earnings went up by 6.5%, largely in line with expectations, while the number of payrolled employees climbed 98,000 in February compared to the previous month.
