UK unemployment has dropped to the lowest level in more than 44 years despite mounting fears over Brexit, as employers across the country ramped up hiring at the fastest rate in more than three years.
The Office for National Statistics said Britain’s jobless rate fell to a fresh low of 3.9% in the three months to January, down from 4% a month earlier, the lowest point since the start of 1975.
Companies increased their hiring activity to add another 222,000 people to the UK workforce, taking the overall number in work to a fresh record high of 32.7 million.
The surprise drop in the jobless rate came despite mounting concern that the chaos over Brexit in Westminster might have encouraged companies to freeze their hiring plans until they have greater clarity over the political situation.
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John Philpott, the director of the Jobs Economist consultancy, said: “Nobody seems to have told the labour market about the mood of Brexit-related economic uncertainty which has gripped the UK since last autumn.
“These record-breaking jobs numbers seem extraordinary and suggest that only a recession-inducing hard Brexit is likely to have a noticeably negative impact on the UK’s employment situation.”
Analysts cautioned that the jobs figures are backward looking because they relate to the three-month period to January, only touching on the start of the worsening crisis over Brexit.
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Theresa May suffered the worst ever parliamentary defeat of the modern era over her plan for EU withdrawal in mid January, while employers’ surveys suggest jobs growth has begun to ease in more recent months.
The robust picture of the jobs market may, however, mask several potential problems facing the UK economy, with the figures covering a period when GDP growth cooled from the higher levels seen last summer.
