LONDON (Reuters) – The number of people on company payrolls fell by 1.7% in May as the coronavirus lockdown continued to hurt the labour market and vacancies plunged, official data showed on Tuesday.
The jobless rate unexpectedly held steady at 3.9% over the three months to April.
Economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.7%.
(Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken)
