UK unemployment falls but pay lags below inflation

LONDON (AP) ? Official statistics show that the unemployment rate in the United Kingdom fell to 7.8 percent in the July-September period.

The Office for National Statistics says Wednesday that the unemployment rate dropped from 8.0 percent in the previous three months and from 8.2 percent in the year-earlier period.

Despite the decrease over the three-month period, there was an increase of 10,000 in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the month of September. Martin Beck, an analyst at Capital Economics, says that may signal that the job market is starting to weaken again.

Meanwhile, the statistics agency also says that pay growth of 1.8 percent in the last year continued to lag behind the rate of inflation, currently 2.7 percent.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-11-14-Britain-Economy/id-5e968d75058b4d8ca8598343bdef646a

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