UK unemployment dips to 4.5%; new low since 1975

London - 12 July 2017: Britain's unemployment rate dipped to 4.5 percent in the quarter to May, a new 42-year low, official data showed on Wednesday.

The rate had stood at 4.6 percent in the quarter to April, already a low since 1975, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

A total of 1.49 million people were recorded as unemployed at the end of May, down 152,000 compared with a year earlier, the ONS added.

However, average weekly earnings adjusted for inflation fell by 0.5 percent, excluding bonuses, compared with a year earlier, the data showed.

British inflation jumped in May close to a four-year high of 2.9 percent as a weak pound triggered by Brexit pushes up import costs.