Unemployment in Britain fell for the third month in a row in September but wage growth unexpectedly slowed down, official data showed today.
The Office for National Statistics said the claimant count measure of joblessness fell by 200 to 946,000, only just above February's level which was the lowest in 27 years.
On that measure, only 3.1 per cent of the workforce are out of a job. On the government's preferred Labour Force Survey measure, which tries to capture those out of work but not claiming benefit, the jobless rate was 5.2 per cent in the three months to August, the same as in the previous three months.
But in spite of the tight labour market, average earnings growth slowed to a relatively benign 3.8 per cent in the three months to August from a downwardly revised 3.9 per cent in the three months to July.
That is well inside the Bank of England 4.5 per cent comfort zone and so the figures are unlikely to raise any eyebrows at the inflation-conscious central bank, which last year cut interest to a 38-year low of 4.0 per cent to ward off the threat of recession.
The ONS said average earnings growth slowed because of the change in timing of bonus payments to the financial sector in July and due to lower public sector pay as a settlement to local authorities in July and August last year was not repeated this year.
In the manufacturing sector, employment fell by 163,000 jobs to 3.659 million in the three months to August from a year earlier.
There were only 13,000 days lost to labour disputes in August following the 521,000 in July.