LONDON--Britain's unemployment rate has hit another six-year low of 5.8 percent and wages are climbing in real terms, official data showed Wednesday.
Economists said the news was a boost for British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, which faces a general election in May.
The jobless rate for September-November compares with 6.0 percent for the three months to the end of October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed in a statement.
Market expectations had been for a drop to 5.9 percent, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg.
The ONS added that the number of unemployed slid 58,000 to 1.91 million people during the period, compared with the three months to August.
That was also a six-year low last seen in autumn 2008, while a record 30 million people were in employment.
Wages excluding bonuses meanwhile advanced 1.8 percent in the three months to November from a year earlier, the ONS said.
Recent data showed that British inflation had dived in December to a record low of 0.50 percent on the back of tumbling oil prices.
"Earnings growth is now developing an appreciable positive gap over inflation, which is very good news for workers and for consumer spending prospects in 2015," said economist Howard Archer at consultancy IHS Global Insight.
"It is also potentially good news for the government as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will both be hoping that rising real earnings growth will make people feel happier about life and more inclined to vote for them in May's general election."
AFP
