Growth in UK employment reached an all-time high with 345,000 more people in work from February to April, compared to the previous quarter. It’s the strongest increase since 1971, when records began, data from Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.
The total number of working people reached 30.54 million, as the unemployment rate fell to a 5 year low of 6.6 percent, with puts a total of 2.16 million out of work, the report says.
Meanwhile the single-month figures show the April’s jobless rate was even lower - to 6.4 percent, the youth unemployment, which covers people aged from 16 to 24, accounted for 853,000.
Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted that the government had reached a "major milestone" in its long term economic plan.
Today we reached a major milestone in our #LongTermEconomicPlan: 2 million new private sector jobs since 2010. More security for people.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) June 11, 2014
The quarterly rate of earnings growth, including bonuses, slowed to 0.7 percent from 1.9 percent the previous month. That happened partly due to a delay in bonus payments, the ONS said. Excluding bonuses, pay rose by 0.9 percent.
The Bank of England is holding the interest rate at a record-low of 0.5 percent until the employment situation gets better.
“Policy makers will no doubt want to be sure that pay growth is picking up substantially before making the first move in tightening policy,” Bloomberg quotes Chris Williamson, the chief economist at Markit in London. “But today’s data will add to expectations the first rate hike will take place this year rather than next.”