The UK unemployment rate has risen unexpectedly and vacancies have fallen for the ninth straight month as the uncertain economic outlook weighs on the country’s jobs market.
According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the unemployment rate for December 2022 to February 2023 increased by 0.1 percentage points on the quarter to 3.8 percent.
Most economists had expected the rate to remain unchanged.
The economic inactivity rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points on the quarter, to 21.1 percent, largely driven by people aged 16 to 24 years.
This helped lift the number of people in employment by 169,000 quarter-on-quarter to 33 million in the three months to February….