Photograph by Helen Cobain
The UK unemployment rate has dropped to 7.1%, with 2.32 million people out of work according to the latest figures by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
The number of unemployed fell by 167,000 in the three months to November 2012, with the number of people seeking Jobseeker’s Allowance falling by 24,000.
A 7.1% level of unemployment is close to the figure proposed by the Bank of England as the point at which they would consider raising interest rates. However, the latest minutes from this month’s meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) shows the bank has no desire to raise interest rates in the near future, with inflation returning to its 2% target last month.
