Market Analysis

The UK's ILO Unemployment Rate increased to 4.4% in the three months leading to April, up from the previous period's 4.3%, as reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday. This rise was contrary to market expectations, which had forecasted a steady rate of 4.3%.

The report also highlighted a significant increase in jobless benefit claims, which rose by 50.4K in May, a sharp contrast to the revised 8.4K increase seen in April and well above the anticipated 10.2K increment.

Employment Change data for April showed a decline of 140K, an improvement from March's decrease of 177K.

In terms of wages, Average Earnings excluding Bonus grew by 6.0% year-over-year for the three months ending in April, consistent with March's growth and in line with expectations. Average Earnings including Bonus also saw a 5.9% increase, maintaining the same pace as the previous quarter and exceeding the projected 5.7% rise.

GBP/USD Reaction to the UK Employment Report:

GBP/USD experienced a slight dip in response to the mixed employment data from the UK. The pair remains flat on the day, trading at 1.2725 at the time of writing.

Paraphrasing text from "FX Street" all rights reserved by the original author.