UK unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1.36m in the three months to June according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the lowest for more than 40 years.
Wages, excluding bonuses, grew by 2.7% in the three months to June, compared with a year ago. The ONS figures also showed the number of European Union nationals working in the UK fell by a record amount.
The unemployment rate fell to 4% in the quarter to June. That was the lowest since February 1975 and better than the figure expected by economists. The drop came despite a smaller-than-expected 42,000 increase in the number of jobs created over the three-month period.
On productivity, the ONS also said output per hour worked was up by 1.5% – the biggest rise since late 2016. The figures also showed 104,000 people who were employed on “zero-hours” contracts, which do not guarantee a set number of hours per week, left such work. That left 780,000 people with those conditions as their main job.
It also said the number of people aged 16 to 64 who were not working, looking for work or available to work – what is known as “economically inactive” – increased by 77,000 from the first quarter of the year.