UK Unemployment Falls As More People Are Employed On Quarterly And Annual Basis And Wages Rise; Lend Strength To Economic Recovery

The number of people with jobs increased while the number of unemployed people fell on a quarterly as well as on an annual basis, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, or ONS, lending strength to projections of a continuous and strong economic recovery in the country.

According to the data released Wednesday, employment increased by 105,000 on a quarterly basis and by 459,000 on an annual basis in the three-month period from November 2013 to January 2014. In the same period, the number of unemployed people went down by 63,000 quarter-on-quarter and by 191,000 annually, the data showed.

In the same three-month period, pay including bonuses was 1.4 percent higher as compared to the previous year, compared to a 1.2 percent increase forecast by a Wall Street Journal consensus estimate.

However, according to data from ILO, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, the unemployment rate remained steady at 7.2 percent, in line with consensus expectations.