Unemployment in Britain unexpectedly fell by the end of January

Unemployment in Britain dropped unexpectedly in the three months to the end of January. This was shown on Tuesday by data published by the British Statistical Office. The unemployment rate reached 5% in the three-month period from November to the end of January. In the previous period from October to the end of December it represented 5.1%. The result was better than expected by economists, who expected unemployment to rise to 5.2%. On the other hand, the current unemployment rate is 1.1 percentage points higher than in the same period last year. At the same time, it still remains at one of the highest levels in the last five years and would have been even higher if the government had not come up with a program for companies to maintain employment. The statistical office also informed that the average wage, including remuneration, increased by 4.8% over the three-month period to the end of January. The growth rate thus slightly lagged behind the estimates of economists, who expected growth of 4.9%. Excluding remuneration, the average wage increased by 4.2%. The data again fell short of the expectations of economists, who expected growth of 4.4%.