Unemployment in Britain ticked up slightly in the three months to September, official data showed today, but statisticians said the overall trend remained downwards.
The Office for National Statistics reported that the Labour Force Survey measure of unemployment showed a rise of 12,000 in the period to 1.48 million, or 5 per cent of the workforce.
But it cautioned that the rise was very small and that the underlying trend for both the jobless total and rate remained downwards.
It also reported that the claimant count measure of unemployment - which counts those actually drawing jobless benefit - showed another fall, of 3,300 to 926,900 last month, the lowest since 1975.
Analysts had expected a slightly larger fall but say the British labour market has remained resilient to the economic slowdown of the past two years, largely thanks to a big increase in public sector hiring as the government has pumped money into key public services.
The ONS also reported that the total number of Britons in work rose to a record 28.15 million in the three months to September, showing the economy is still creating jobs.
It also said average earnings growth picked up to 3.6 per cent in the three months to September from a year earlier -- the highest since January. But statisticians said this was mainly due to an artificially weak June number dropping out of the comparison and probably did not indicate upward pressure on wage growth.
The number also remains well inside the Bank of England's comfort zone of 4.5 per cent.