U.K. Unemployment Rate Falls to Its Lowest Level Since March 2009

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GBP/USD: Jobless claims in the U.K. fell 20.8K for the month of June after tumbling a revised 31.1K the previous month, exceeding economists’ expectations for a  20.0K decline. At the same time, the claimant count rate fell to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent in May, marking the lowest level since March 2009, the National Statistics in London said today. Meanwhile, during the three months through May, the number of jobless persons in the U.K. rose 160K from the three months to February. The breakdown of the report also showed that  employee jobs rose to -47 for the first quarter from -116 during the three months through December, while self-employment jobs soared to 58 in first quarter from -2 the previous quarter. It is also worth noting that the unemployment rate for young people ages 18 to  24 also fell during the quarter. All in all, the U.K. labor force is showing an improved outlook as the number of inactive persons of working age continues to push lower. As long as the labor force can continue to weather the storm for the rest of the year, we will likely see the trend spill over into the beginning months of 2011 as corporate taxes are expected to drop from 28 percent to 27 percent in 2011 and 26 percent in 2012. To discuss this and other topics, please visit the GBP/USD forum.


Written by Michael Wright, Currency Analyst
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