UK Immigration Focus on UK Immigration Economy: According to CNBC reports, the UK labor market has continued to recover since this summer, and the UK unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest level since mid-2008, showing that the job market is resisting the adverse effects of the global economy.
Data released by the UK Office for National Statistics in London on Wednesday showed that the UK unemployment rate fell to 5.4% from June to August, compared to 5.5% in the previous three months. A Bloomberg survey of economists had expected it to remain unchanged at 5.5%. Wage growth excluding bonuses slowed from 2.9% to 2.8%.
In the absence of inflation, the growth of real income for the British public has reached its highest level since before the financial crisis. After price adjustments, wage growth for the last three months remained at 2.7%. This may boost consumer spending; as the economy lacks price pressure, the Bank of England has room to keep interest rates at record lows.
The number of employed people in the UK rose by 140,000 in the last three months to 31.1 million. The number of unemployed people fell by 79,000 to 1.77 million. A narrower measure of unemployment—the number of people claiming unemployment benefits—rose for the second consecutive month in September, increasing by 4,600 from August, with the claimant count rate remaining at 2.3%. Wage growth including bonuses accelerated from 2.9% to 3%.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global economic growth forecast due to concerns about emerging markets and the slowdown in the Chinese economy, but it raised its growth forecast for the UK economy. The IMF at that time projected UK economic growth of 2.5% for 2015 and 2.2% for 2016, an upward revision from its July forecast. In fact, the IMF emphasized that against the backdrop of a bleak global economy, the growth momentum of the UK economy is a rare "bright spot".