19.05.202006:31:00UTC+00UK Unemployment Rate Rises Marginally

The UK unemployment rate rose only marginally in the first quarter, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Tuesday.

The ILO jobless rate came in at 3.9 percent, well below economists' forecast of 4.4 percent.

The ONS said the unemployment rate was 0.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous quarter.

At the same time, the employment rate in the three months to March reached a joint-record high of 76.6 percent, which was 0.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

Today's labor force survey estimates for January to March period remained mostly unaffected by the impact of the coronavirus, the ONS said.

Data showed that average earnings including bonus grew 2.4 percent from last year, slower than the expected 2.6 percent.

Excluding bonus, average earnings advanced 2.7 percent annually, slightly faster than the forecast of 2.6 percent.

In April, the claimant count rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 5.8 percent from 3.5 percent a month ago. The number of jobless claims increased sharply by 856,500 in April.