"Although concerns remain over youth and long-term employment, the figures show that Britain's labour market is strong and flexible, and that the economy should record satisfactory growth in the third quarter."
- David Kern, chief economist at British Chambers of Commerce
Britain is on the path of sustain recovery. This can be suggested after a bunch of economic data released in recent months. Better-than-expected data are raising concerns the Bank of England can start raising borrowing costs sooner than it was pledged. Another reason behind such suggestion is a steep decline in the number of jobless claims, which plunged the most since 1997. A report from the Office for National Statistics showed claims for jobless benefits sank 41,700, the most in 16 years, exceeding the 25,000 drop expected by analysts. There are currently 1.35 million people filing for unemployment benefit. A wider measure of unemployment, however, remained at 7.7%, as economists forecast. Furthermore, the number of employed people reached 29.87 million- the highest since records began in 1971.
Labour market has become one of the hottest sets of fundamental data having been closely watched since Mark Carnet introduced the forward guidance in August. The Bank of England uses it as a threshold, saying they would keep interest rate at a record low of 0.5% until the jobless rate hits, or even falls below, 7%, which is expected to happen not sooner than in late 2016. Nonetheless, latest data is suggesting it could reach the key level even sooner. More and more analysts now believe the unemployment will continue falling steadily and may reach 7% in the autumn of 2015.
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