UK Unemployment Rate steadies at 4.4% in the quarter to January as expected

• The UK Unemployment Rate stays at 4.4% in three months to January.
• The Claimant Count Change for Britain came in at 44.2K in January.
• GBP/USD remains below 1.3000 after mixed UK employment data.

The United Kingdom’s (UK) ILO Unemployment Rate stayed unchanged at 4.4% in the three months to January, data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed on Thursday. The market consensus was for a 4.4% reading in the reported period.

Additional details of the report showed that the number of people claiming jobless benefits increased by 44.2K in February, compared with a gain of 2.8K in January, missing the expected 7.9K figure.

The Employment Change data for January came in at 144K versus December’s 107K.

Meanwhile, Average Earnings, excluding Bonus, in the UK rose 5.9% three months year-over-year (3M YoY) in January versus a 5.9% growth booked previously. Markets expected a 5.9% print.

Another measure of wage inflation, Average Earnings, including Bonus, advanced 5.8% in the same period after accelerating by a revised 6.1% in the quarter through December. The data surpassed the market forecast of 5.9%.

GBP/USD reaction to the UK employment report

GBP/USD holds lower ground on the release of the UK employment data. The pair is trading 0.02% lower on the day at 1.2985, as of writing.

(This story was corrected on March 20 at 07:09 GMT to say that "Additional details of the report showed that the number of people claiming jobless benefits increased by 44.2K in February, compared with a gain of 2.8K in January," not 22K)