UK claimant count falls more than f'cast, at 13-mth low

LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - The number of people claiming jobless benefits in Britain fell more than expected in May to its lowest rate in more than a year, but the wider measure of unemployment continued to climb, official data showed on Wednesday.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of people claiming jobless benefit fell by 30,900 in May. Analysts had forecast a fall of 20,000. Moreover, April's fall was revised to show a fall of 32,000, significantly bigger than previously reported.

The number of unemployed on the wider ILO measure rose by 23,000 in the three months to April to 2.472 million. That took the jobless rate up to 7.9 percent, but still below forecasts for a reading of 8.0 percent.

The claimant count and ILO measures have diverged sharply in recent months, but the ONS said that they measure different things. Where there are some similarities is in the number of long-term unemployed, which is rising on both measures.

Still, unemployment has not gone up as far as many had feared after the worst recession since World War Two, and most analysts expect the labour market to continue improving over the next few months.

Risks remain, however, from big cuts in public spending that could lead thousands of government lay-offs.

The latest data also show that the spike in average earnings seen in earlier months has now subsided and downward pressure on pay looks likely to resume.

Average weekly earnings growth slowed to 4.2 percent in the three months to April compared with a year ago from 4.3 percent in the three months to March. The slowdown in annual earnings growth in April versus March was much more dramatic. Earnings in April were just 0.9 percent higher than a year ago, compared with an annual rise of 6.2 percent in March.

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