LONDON (dpa-AFX) - The UK unemployment rate remained unchanged at the lowest level seen since 1975 amid weak earnings growth, official data showed Wednesday.
The ILO jobless rate held steady at 4.7 percent in three months to February, the Office for National Statistics reported. It has not been lower since June to August 1975.
The number of unemployed decreased by 45,000 from prior quarter to 1.56 million.
The labor market will come under increasing pressure over the coming months from slowing economic activity and increasing business caution; this is seen causing unemployment to start to edge up around mid-year, IHS Markit Economist Howard Archer, said.
The economist expects the unemployment rate trending up gradually to 5.1 percent at end-2017 and 5.6 percent at end-2018.
The employment rate was 74.6 percent in three months to February, which was the joint highest since comparable records began in 1971.
Average earnings including bonus advanced 2.3 percent annually, slightly faster than the expected 2.2 percent. Excluding bonus, earnings grew 2.2 percent.
Adjusted for inflation, average weekly earnings including bonus gained 0.2 percent and by 0.1 percent excluding bonus. This was the weakest rise since 2014.
Data released on Tuesday showed that inflation held steady at a three-and-a-half year high of 2.3 percent in March.
Muted earnings growth reinforces the squeeze on consumers coming from markedly higher inflation - and this is likely to increasingly weigh down increasingly on economic activity, IHS Markit economist Archer, said.
While underlying wage growth is still struggling to keep pace with inflation, the continued strength of employment growth is one reason to think that any slowdown in spending growth won't be too sharp, Paul Hollingsworth, a UK economist at Capital Economics, said.
The claimant count rose slightly to 2.2 percent in March from 2.1 percent in February. The number of people claiming jobseekers' allowances increased by 25,500 from prior month.
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