UK EMPLOYMENT - Getting better and better

The UK's unemployment rate continues to confound expectations, falling faster than analysts' forecasts.

The headline rate of those out of work fell to 5.1% for November, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Analysts expected the unemployment rate for November, which takes the average of that month and the two that preceded it, to come in at 5.2%, the same as October.

The last few months have been great for UK jobseekers.

September's unemployment figure was better than the flat 5.4% economists had expected. And August's 5.4% figure was below analysts forecasts of 5.5%.

The UK is more or less at full employment - the economic term for where everyone who can get a job in a functioning economy has one.

The current employment rate is 74%, the highest since records began in 1971.

Figures also out Wednesday show pay is growing slower than forecast. Here's the ONS (emphasis ours):

Comparing the 3 months to November 2015 with the same period in 2014, real AWE (total pay) grew by 2.1%, compared with 2.4% in the 3 months to October. Nominal AWE (total pay) grew by 2.0% in the three months to November, while the CPI rose by 0.1% in the year to November.