The rate of unemployment in the UK remained largely unchanged compared to the previous quarter. The rate was also below market consensus (of 3.8%). In detail, the number of unemployed people rose by 5,000 to 1.25m while employment levels rose by 65,000 to 32.84m (largely driven by part-time employees and self-employed workers).
Total pay growth also eased to 5.7% year-on-year in the three months to January, however wages dropped by 3.2% which was the largest decline since the February to April 2009 period.
