British unemployment has continued to fall and the number of people in work has hit another new high, figures show today.
The number of people out of work was 1.46 million in the three months to January, down 73,000 on the figure for the previous three months.
That is the sharpest quarter-on-quarter decline for two years, while the total figure is also 28,000 lower than a year earlier.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also reported that employment had continued to climb, with a record 27,815,000 people in work in the three months to January, an increase of 271,000 over the year.
The ONS added that the number of people claiming benefit had risen slightly by 2,600 to 935,300.
That resulted in a claimant count rate for February of 3.1 per cent of the workforce, unchanged on the previous month.
Today's fall in unemployment has been helped by expansion in the public sector, along with continued recruitment in areas such as retailing and construction.
The ONS showed the pain in manufacturing with the number of jobs in the sector falling by 144,000 on a year earlier to 3.56 million in the three months to January.
The annual average earnings growth rate across the economy was 3.6 per cent in the quarter, down by 0.1 per cent on the level reported for December.
PA