UK jobless rate hits lowest since 1974 as people quit labour market

Britain’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest since 1974 at 3.6% in the three months to July as more people left the labour market including those classified as long-term sickas well as students, official monthly figures showed on Tuesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected the jobless rate to stay at 3.8%.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of people in employment grew by just 40,000 in the May-July period, less than a third of the increase expected by the economists polled by Reuters.
The economic inactivity rate – measuring the share of the population who are not in work and not looking for work – increased by 0.4 percentage points on the quarter to 21.7%.
The Bank of England is worried about increasing inactivity in the labour market as it could help to fuel inflation pressures due to a lack of candidates to fill jobs.