The number of unemployed people in the UK fell 36,000 to 2.46m for the first quarter of 2011, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported, taking the headline jobless rate to 7.7pc from the 7.9pc seen at the end of last year. Policy-makers will have breathed a particular sigh of relief as they learned that youth unemployment, which looked like it might touch the 1m threshold, actually fell. The number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work dropped 30,000 against the previous three months to 935,000 for the first quarter.
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