British unemployment rate has fallen to 4.6 per cent in three months to March, hitting the lowest since 1975, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. A year earlier the figure was 5.1 per cent.

The number of jobless people, who are not in work but seeking and available to work, fell by 53,000 to 1.54 million in the first quarter this year, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday. Meanwhile, the employment rate, the proportion of 16 to 64 year olds in work, was 74.8 per cent, the highest since comparable records began in 1971.