Unemployment in the U.K. dropped by more than expected in the three months to February although youth unemployment increased and wage growth slowed, according to The Daily Telegraph. On Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics reported that the number of unemployed Britons dropped by 17,000 in the three months to February to 2.48 million, which was more than four times the decline that had been anticipated by economists. The drop brought the overall unemployment rate down by 0.1% to 7.8% for the period.

The report showed that the number of Britons aged 16-24 rose to 963,000 during that time, marking an unemployment rate of 20.4%. Hetal Mehta of Daiwa Capital Markets said, “With the majority of public sector job cuts still to come, this does not signal a turnaround in the labor market,” despite the positive headline figure. Meanwhile, the ONS reported that pay across the workforce increase by 2% in the year to February, which is the weakest growth in six months. The retail prices index was recorded at 5.5% in February, signaling that price growth is almost three times the rate of wage inflation and creating a decline in real incomes.

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