UK labour market exodus drives jobless rate down to 3.5%

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest since 1974 at 3.5% in the three months to August, but the drop was driven by a record jump in the number of people leaving the labour market, adding to the Bank of England’s headaches.

The number of people classed as inactive – neither in work nor looking for it – rose by 252,000 from the three months to May, the biggest such increase since records began in 1971, the Office for National Statistics said.

The BoE, which is also trying to stem financial market turmoil triggered by new Prime Minister Liz Truss’s economic programme, is worried that Britain’s shrinking labour market will add to inflation pressures.

The ONS said there had been a spike in employment and a fall in inactivity in the three months to May which might, at least in part, explain some of the change in the three months to August.

The 0.6 percentage points increase in the inactivity rate to 21.7% in the June-August period was the biggest on record alongside the increase in the March-May period of 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic hit Europe, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected the jobless rate to remain at 3.6%.

The number of people in employment fell by 109,000 in the June-August period, less than a median forecast for a 155,000 drop in the Reuters poll.

(Reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Andy Bruce)

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