British pound boosted by good news on the employment / unemployment front - wage growth also increases

The British pound has risen across the board in the wake of today's employment figures. "GBPUSD highest levels since Feb on better fall in claimant counts," point out FXStreet.

A snapshot of the data and reactions to the data

The UK Claimant Count Change falls by 8.6K in May; forecasts were for a fall of 5k - a whopping beat on consensus.

"GBPUSD surges on the back of better than expected labour market data in the UK  (esp. wage data), however 1.5705 still Shor Term top" - say Forex.com in the wake of the just breaking news concerning the UK's employment situation.

Markit Economics point out that the UK average weekly earnings, ex-bonuses, improved by 0.9 pct y/y in the 3 months through to April (expectations were for an improvement of 0.7 pct), April alone saw an increase of 1.3 pct y/y.

"That's the first increase in weekly earnings (ex-bonus) growth since August of last year," say World First.

Looking at the overall employment picture, the UK ILO jobless number fell by 5,000 in 3m to April, the unemployment rate is thus 7.8 pct (expectations 7.8%). Labour Force Survey employment grew by 24,000, there are now  29.756 mln people in work in 3m to April 2013.