UK Unemployment Rate holds steady at 4.2% in quarter to October, as expected

• The UK Unemployment Rate stayed unchanged at 4.2% in the quarter to October.
• The Claimant Count Change for Britain arrived at 16K in November.
• GBP/USD pares back gains toward 1.2550 after the mixed UK jobs data.

The United Kingdom’s (UK) ILO Unemployment Rate held steady at 4.2% in three months to October, according to the latest data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Tuesday. The market consensus was for a 4.2% print in the October quarter.

Additional details of the report showed that the number of people claiming jobless benefits climbed by 16K in November, compared with an increase of 8.9K in October while beating the estimate of 20.3K.

The British Employment Change data for October came in at 50K, as against a 54K gain seen in September.

Average Earnings excluding Bonus in the UK rose 7.3% 3M YoY in October versus September’s 7.8% increase. Markets had expected an acceleration of 7.4%.

Another measure of wage inflation, Average Earnings including Bonus grew by 7.2%  in the reported period when compared to an 8.0% increase in September and the expected 7.7% raise.

GBP/USD reaction to the UK employment report

GBP/USD came under renewed selling pressure and tumbled to 1.2561 in an immediate reaction to the mixed UK employment data. The pair is trading 0.18% higher on the day at 1.2572, as of writing.