London: Britain’s unemployment rate inched up to 7.8% in the three months to September, official data showed on Wednesday, although the number of unemployed rose by the smallest amount in 18 months.
“The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 7.8% for July to September 2009,” compared with the three months to June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
“The number of unemployed people increased by 30,000 over the quarter to reach 2.46 million.”
“These are the smallest quarterly increases in unemployment since March-May 2008.”