"We've had a very decent confluence of events. The labor market numbers are positive and reflect the favorable part of the economy in the first half,"
- Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec Securities
Britain's labour market fuelled hopes the recovery is on hold, as the number of jobless claims fell at their fastest pace in three years, while the unemployment fell as well, official figures showed Wednesday. The number of jobless claims dropped by 21,200 from May, the biggest monthly drop since June 2010, which helped to push the total number of claims to 1.48 million. Data also showed that the number of jobless people tumbled by 57,000 to 2.51 million in the three months to May, with youth unemployment falling 20,000. The overall jobless rate, however, remained unchanged at 7.8%. Nevertheless, almost one million people has been out of work for more than 12 months, 32,00 higher than the previous month and the highest level since 1996.
The recent figures provide a boost to the nation's Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Conservative Party is now more popular among voters as the economy improves. As the general elections will take place in two years, the government is trying to push growth as higher as they can, as inflation continued to erode household incomes, while plenty of public-sector jobs are axed to help narrow the budget gap. Economists greeted the ONS data as another sign of increased momentum in domestic economy, following a wave of upbeat data in recent weeks.
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