UK Unemployment Rate holds steady at 4.2% in quarter to October, as expected
- The UK Unemployment Rate stayed unchanged at 4.2% in the quarter to October.
- The Claimant Count Change for Britain arrived at 16K in November.
- GBP/USD pares back gains toward 1.2550 after the mixed UK jobs data.
The United Kingdom’s (UK) ILO Unemployment Rate held steady at 4.2% in three months to October, according to the latest data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Tuesday. The market consensus was for a 4.2% print in the October quarter.
Additional details of the report showed that the number of people claiming jobless benefits climbed by 16K in November, compared with an increase of 8.9K in October while beating the estimate of 20.3K.
The British Employment Change data for October came in at 50K, as against a 54K gain seen in September.
Average Earnings excluding Bonus in the UK rose 7.3% 3M YoY in October versus September’s 7.8% increase. Markets had expected an acceleration of 7.4%.
Another measure of wage inflation, Average Earnings including Bonus grew by 7.2% in the reported period when compared to an 8.0% increase in September and the expected 7.7% raise.
The UK Minister for Employment, Jo Churchill MP, told FXStreet: “This year the number of employees on payroll reached a record high in the UK Labour Market – up over 300,000 on the year.”
“Our transformational Back to Work plan with £2.5 billion will help thousands more people access the wide-ranging benefits of work and boost our economy,” the minister added.
GBP/USD reaction to the UK employment report
GBP/USD came under renewed selling pressure and tumbled to 1.2561 in an immediate reaction to the mixed UK employment data. The pair is trading 0.18% higher on the day at 1.2572, as of writing.
Pound Sterling price today
The table below shows the percentage change of Pound Sterling (GBP) against listed major currencies today. Pound Sterling was the weakest against the New Zealand Dollar.
| USD | EUR | GBP | CAD | AUD | JPY | NZD | CHF | |
| USD | -0.14% | -0.18% | -0.21% | -0.47% | -0.56% | -0.61% | -0.24% | |
| EUR | 0.13% | -0.04% | -0.05% | -0.33% | -0.44% | -0.48% | -0.11% | |
| GBP | 0.18% | 0.04% | -0.01% | -0.29% | -0.37% | -0.42% | -0.06% | |
| CAD | 0.19% | 0.07% | 0.01% | -0.25% | -0.37% | -0.42% | -0.04% | |
| AUD | 0.47% | 0.33% | 0.29% | 0.28% | -0.10% | -0.14% | 0.21% | |
| JPY | 0.55% | 0.42% | 0.37% | 0.36% | 0.03% | -0.13% | 0.23% | |
| NZD | 0.60% | 0.47% | 0.43% | 0.42% | 0.14% | 0.04% | 0.36% | |
| CHF | 0.22% | 0.11% | 0.06% | 0.04% | -0.21% | -0.33% | -0.37% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Euro from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent EUR (base)/JPY (quote).
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.
