| Updated:
UK unemployment in slight fall
The number of people unemployed in the UK fell by 9,000 in the three months to September.
That leaves total unemployment almost unchanged at 2.45m, according to the Office for National Statistics figures.
The overall unemployment rate was also unchanged at 7.7 per cent.
Claimant count – those out of work and receiving benefits – also fell slightly in October, by 3,700 to 1.47m.
Howard Archer of Global insight said: “The labour market data may well be mixed in the very near term, but we expect a clear deteriorating trend to increasingly emerge.
“We suspect that unemployment is headed up over the coming months as a consequence of slower, below-trend growth, rising business caution and public sector jobs being increasingly pared.”