For the first time since February 2008, the claimant count measure of unemployment fell unexpectedly in November. This means that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Britain fell unexpectedly.

The total unemployment for the months of October-Dec rose by 21,000 to 2.49m, this smallest three-month increase in the ILO measure since May 2008. The number claiming Jobseeker’s allowance fell by 6,300 to 1.63m and the unemployment rate is at 7.9% says a report from The Office for National Statistics.

Unemployment is rising at a slower pace than feared by economists. In the next year, the total number of jobless will be less than three million as predicted by the economists.

From the month of August to October, the employment rose by 53,000 to 28.9m. However, the credit goes entirely to the part-time workers.

“In it, a rise in part-time employment is probably a positive development, but the absence of any meaningful correlation between GDP and part-time employment trends means we cannot conclude that this is signaling that a solid, sustainable labor market recovery is imminent”, said Ross Walker, economist at Royal Bank of Scotland.