UK June ILO unemployment rate 4.2% vs 4.5% expected

• Prior 4.4%
• Employment change 97k vs 3k expected
• Prior 19k
• Average weekly earnings +4.5% vs +4.6% 3m/y expected
• Prior +5.7%
• Average weekly earnings (ex bonus) +5.4% vs +5.4% 3m/y expected
• Prior +5.7%
• July payrolls change 24k
• Prior 16k; revised to 14k

The headline statistic is quite bewildering and it paints a stronger labour market than in the months before. That being said, ONS cautions with a big caveat in saying that the estimates and data set contains “uncertainty”. Elaborating on that, they advise that one should be cautious when “interpreting short-term changes in headline rates and recommend using them as part of our suite of labour market indicators”. In other words, there is a compromise to quality and accuracy to the survey.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.