UK Oct jobs: Claimant count change upbeat, Wages tick higher

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) noted on Wednesday, the UK’s official jobless rate held steady at 4.3% in September, while the claimant count showed a smaller-than-expected rise last month.

The number of people claiming jobless benefits rose by 1.1k in October, against expectations of a 2.3k increase and 2.6k (revised from 1.7k) seen previously. The claimant count rate remained unchanged at 2.3%.

Wage growth, excluding bonuses, matched expectations, arriving at 2.2% versus 2.2% (revised higher from 2.1%) last, while the gauge including bonuses surprised positively, coming in at 2.2% 3m y/y versus 2.1% expected and 2.3%(revised higher from 2.2%) last.

Key Points from ONS:

Employment has fallen for the first time since October 2016 and the largest drop since Apr-Jun 2015(-45K).

There were 32.06 million people in work, 14,000 fewer than for April to June 2017 but 279,000 more than for a year earlier.

The employment rate fell 0.1% 3M to Sep, but still up 0.6% versus a year ago.

Real wages still negative on an annual basis, both total and ex-Bonus fell, -0.5% and 0.4% respectively.

Vacancies rose 6K on the quarter to 780K.

Inactivity rate rose 117K (0.3%) in the quarter to 8.86M (21.6%).

Q3 productivity growth rate strongest for 6-years, however only up 0.6% over 12-months.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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