Britain’s unemployment rate has plunged to its lowest level in four-and-a-half years.<br /><br />It was at 7.4 percent of the workforce in the three months to October, according to the Office for National Statistics.<br /><br />That was down from 7.6 percent in the three-month reading taken one month earlier. <br /><br />The number of people in work jumped by a quarter of a million, the biggest increase since the summer of 2010.<br /><br />Asked about the figures Ross Walker, senior economist at RBS said: “They’re very, very strong – the underlying trend looks robust.” <br /><br />However many British workers are not seeing an improvement in living<br />standards as average weekly earnings growth showed minimal improvement.<br /><br />Bank of England threshold nears<br /><br />The jobless rate is approaching the Bank of England’s threshold for considering a hike in interest rates at a far greater speed than expected. <br /><br />The UK central bank has said that assuming no inflation surprises it will not consider interest raising rates until the unemployment rate falls to at least 7 percent.<br /><br />Bank Governor Mark Carney declined to comment on the latest figures when questioned about them at a news conference on the introduction of plastic banknotes for Britain.<br /><br />As the recovery has picked up speed, Carney has stressed that unemployment hitting 7 percent would not be an automatic trigger for a rate hike from record low levels, and that the recovery needs to deepen before stimulus can be rolled back.
