UK unemployment edges higher

LONDON, June 14 (AFP): Britain's unemployment rate has risen slightly, while soaring inflation is causing the value of wages to fall at the fastest pace in more than a decade, official data showed Tuesday.

Unemployment rose to 3.8 per cent in the three months to the end of April, but remained close to a 50-year low as Britain sees record-high vacancies.

That compared with an unemployment rate of 3.7 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

ONS Head of Economic Statistics, Sam Beckett, meanwhile noted that "pay in real terms is falling at its fastest rate in over a decade", with UK inflation at a 40-year high.

The jobs data follows official figures Monday showing British economic output declined for a second month in a row in April, weighed down by runaway consumer prices.

"It is possible that this is the very first signs that the weakening in economic activity since the start of the year is filtering through into a less tight labour market," Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said Tuesday.