For the July-September period for the current year, the rate of unemployment across UK rose again, but the good news is that the growth seen was the smallest since recorded for May 2008. The rapid rise in the jobless rate that the country had been witnessing for some months now seems to be slowing down.

As confirmed by the figures revealed by the Office for National Statistics, unemployment saw a 7.8% increase for the aforementioned period, down from the 7.9% recorded for April-June period, and the smallest recorded in 18 months. The number of unemployed people surged by 30,000 for the year's third-quarter taking the total number to 2.46 million. The rate of unemployed youths, however, hit a record high with 19.8%.

"The further improvement in the UK labour market figures is impressive given that the economy may not even be out of recession yet", said Ricky Redwood, economist at Capital Economics. "Even if employment doesn't start to fall again, we doubt that it will start to rise significantly for a number of years".

The slowing down of the rise in people out of jobs is being taken as a good sign by the analysts, economists and authorities, but experts have been quick to warn that these figures should not be treated as permanent as the market conditions are still unstable and employers are treading cautiously.