Recession Continues to steal jobs across the British Island

U.K jobless claims unexpectedly jumped this past January to the highest level since April 1997, as the recession continues to steal jobs from businesses across the British Island.

Yesterday morning’s Claimant Count Change reported that the number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose to a record 1.64 Million, increasing by a drastic 23,500 claims from the previous month.

Last month the number of joblessness claims had dropped by 14.6K – this month, economists were expecting unemployment claims to continue to fall by another 9.6K. Despite this increase, the unemployment rate stayed as expected at 7.8%.

In regards to salary, the average earnings index rose a dismal 0.8% last December over the year (1.2% excluding bonuses), versus expected 1.2% - the lowest recorded yearly change in salaries.

Despite the disappointing job figures, The GBP saw little change in the Forex online market trading, after the release of the worse than expected claimant count, trading at $1.5770 down 0.115% from the day’s opening of $1.57882.

Moreover, the Bank of England meeting minutes were released and showed that BoE policy makers agreed unanimously pause their £200 billion bond purchasing program.

Tuesday’s bullish trend for the GBP/USD took a turn for the worse, as the combination of the BoE vote to suspend its asset purchase program along, push the sterling down 0.744% against the greenback - the pair closed at $1.56647.

Early this morning, Britain’s bureau of National Statistics will release the Public Net Borrowing Figure – the difference in spending and income from public operations, central government and local governments.

British public expenditure is eyed by the opposition and by investors alike. After many months of extended borrowing, the British government is expected to report negative borrowing of 2.4B,something that could potential help the Pound regain some of yesterday’s losses.