The number of Britons seeking jobless claims has unexpectedly started to show a fall, suggesting that the labour market may be much healthier than previously thought, while wage growth rose above forecasts, official figures showed.
Meanwhile, there was good news on the jobs front, with evidence of a significant improvement in unemployment and employment levels.
The number of Britons making jobless claims, the claimant count, fell by 5,700 in November to reach 950,800. The figure is well above expectations for a rise of around 3,000. On top of that, October's claimant count figure was revised to show a fall of 3,600 from the original rise of 1,200.
The November drop is the biggest fall in the claimant count since January 2005. The claimant count rate for the month was unchanged at 3 per cent.
Meanwhile, the broader International Labour Organisation measure of unemployment in the three months to October also showed a substantial improvement, falling by 7,000 from the previous three months to 1.70 million. This is the first fall in the ILO measure since March to May 2005.
The fall takes the jobless rate to 5.5 per cent, unchanged from the previous three months to September, where the rate was revised up from the previous estimate of 5.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the level of employment continued to rise.
The figures showed that the number of those gaining employment rose by some 41,000 in the three months to October from the previous three months to reach 29 million, the highest since the three months to August and the second highest figure on record. The year-on-year rise was 216,000.
The employment rate for people of working age was 74.5 per cent in the three months to October, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous three months and down 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier.
Elsewhere, the figures also showed a rise in wage growth.
PA