"What you are seeing is a slight deterioration in the employment data"
-Ross Walker, chief UK economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland
Another sign that the British economy is on the path of recovery has emerged on Wednesday, when data showed stabilization in the labour market, report from the Office for National Statistics showed. The number of people claiming jobless benefit tumbled by 7,300 last month, compared with analysts' forecasts for a modest dip of 3,000 from March. However, there were 15,000 more people without a job, totalling 2.52 million in the three months to the end of March, pushing unemployment rate 0.1% higher to 7.8%. Meantime, the ILO jobless rate eased to 7.8%, confounding forecasts for a steady reading of 7.9%. Average earnings rose only by 0.4% in the year to March, compared with a gain of 0.8% in the year to February, posting the lowest rate of growth since 2009. As the economy is starting to show signs of recovery, businesses are likely to increase hiring, which will lead to the overall improvement of a labour market.
"What you are seeing is a slight deterioration in the employment data," said Ross Walker, chief UK economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland. "It's not collapsing, but the underlying picture is weak."
"But labour's shadow work and pensions secretary," Liam Byrne, said "the figures speak for themselves. A lot of the jobs being created are temporary jobs, self-employed or part time," he added.
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