UK claimant count falls for 1st time since Feb 2008

The number of Britons claiming unemployment benefit fell in November for the first time in almost two years, according to official data on Wednesday that showed unexpected resilience in the labour market.

The Office for National Statistics said claimant count unemployment fell by 6,300 last month, the first fall since February 2008 and confounding expectations for a rise of 13,300.

October's claimant count rise was more than halved to 5,900.

The number of people without a job on the wider ILO measure rose by 21,000 in the three months to October to 2.491 million. That was the smallest quarterly increase since March-May 2008 and left the jobless rate at 7.9 percent, as expected.

The pound rose against the euro and the dollar as investors warmed to the view that Britain's economy was recovering after its longest recession since World War Two.

"It reinforces the point that the economy is probably not contracting as much as the Q3 GDP data suggested and reinforces the case that the Q4 GDP will show a robust pace of expansion," said Alan Clarke, UK economist at BNP Paribas.

Britain remained in recession in the third quarter, unlike many of its trading partners.

In a further sign of a strengthening labour market, the total number of Britons in employment rose by 53,000 over the period, the biggest rise since March-May 2008.

Vicky Redwood, economist at Capital Economics, said the rise in employment was been driven entirely by part-time workers, suggesting firms remain nervous.

"The forward-looking surveys suggest that the labour market could continue to improve in the next couple of months. But we still think that firms could undertake another round of cost-cutting early next year," she said.

Average earnings including bonuses rose by 1.5 percent in the three months to October compared with a year ago, well above expectations for a reading of 1.2 percent.