LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The number of Britons claiming

unemployment benefits fell in November and the number of people

in work hit a record high, data showed.

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CLAIMANT COUNT UNEMPLOYED NOV OCT F'CAST

Monthly change -3,000 6,000 (10,100) 7,000

Rate 4.8 4.8 (4.8)

ILO UNEMPLOYMENT AUG-OCT MAY-JULY AUG-OCT 11 F'CAST

Total (mln) 2.510 2.592 2.637

Rate 7.8 8.1 8.3 7.8

Change on qtr -82,000 n/a n/a

KEY POINTS

- Lowest unemployment level since March-May 2011

- Highest employment level since records began in 1971

ECONOMISTS' VIEWS

VICTORIA CLARKE, INVESTEC

'Another decent report showing the jobs sector being in much

better health than the macro economy. We have seen employment

continue to pick up, claimant counts falling and ILO

unemployment has remained steady. Overall, further evidence that

the flexibility of the UK jobs market continues to support some

of those headline figures.'

'Earnings data is pretty weak and certainly that's running

short of headline inflation still. In terms of the feed across

to the macro story, that obviously implies that consumer

spending is likely to be weak.

'So whilst you have more people in work than you perhaps

would have had if the UK jobs market hadn't been so flexible,

they are being squeezed from a real earnings perspective and

that could weigh on consumer spending through the end of this

year and in the end hit the UK growth in the 4th quarter and at

the start of 2013.'

'I think the Bank of England will take heart from these

figures, but they will be worried by the apparent deterioration

in the macro figures, and that leaves scope for them easing

policy further with more QE in the New Year, if that trend

continues.'

ALAN CLARKE, SCOTIABANK

'I thought it was a relief. We've had a lot of doom and

gloom of late, from industrial production, from trade balance

data and there was very good reason for the employment numbers

to soften further than they did. So it's actually a relief that

they didn't cool off even more. A 40k increase in the last three

months is obviously not as good as 100k recorded last month, but

there were some exceptionally big gains earlier in the year

which we were never going to match.'

'Claimant count is down on the month and revised better last

month, so despite having a super strong first half of the year,

the labour data are showing precious little sign of payback.'

On outlook for UK economy:

'It makes it less dark. I'm not sure it brightens it because

unemployment growth is slowing, wage inflation is very low but

consumer price inflation is accelerating so households' spare

income is getting squeezed and that's bad for growth. So it's

less dark than it could be.'

'I think it will be a pleasant surprise (for the BoE

that)it's not weaker. They said in their last set of minutes

that uncertainty and deleveraging meant that QE was not

appropriate in November, nothing has changed on that front. Yes,

the data has been gloomy but that doesn't change the reasons why

they didn't do QE in November.'

JAMES KNIGHTLEY, ING

'The UK jobs report shows some reasonably encouraging

newsflow on the labour market.'

'The main disappointment was the fact that despite the gains

in employment, there is no pick-up in wage growth, which remains

at 1.8 percent, year on year.

'The fact that UK employment is rising, consumer confidence

is up and anecdotal evidence of retail sales haven't been too

bad, offers some hope that the domestic situation in the UK is

stabilising.

'The BoE's Funding for Lending Scheme is also showing some

tentative signs of supporting the economy, with borrowing costs

edging lower. As a result, it seems the main risks for the UK

are currently external through the US fiscal cliff and Eurozone

worries, which the Bank of England can do little to offset other

than subtly try and talk down sterling.'

ROB WOOD, BERENBERG BANK

'Close to expectations, but I think the bottom line is that

employment growth is slowing. It Has slowed a bit over the past

few months and weak UK growth may be beginning to catch up with

the labour market.'

'I think they confirm the picture of stagnation heading into

Q4. With an economic contraction on the cards for the fourth

quarter, and it looking weak in Q1, we'll probably see some more

slowing in the labour market.'

'Earnings growth, which slowed and was below consensus

expectations (was) again a bit of downside news'

'The BoE were expecting a weak fourth quarter anyway so

maybe not too much news for them, but as things to continue to

weaken further, then it makes a move more likely.'

(Reporting by UK economics team)

Keywords: BRITAIN ECONOMY/

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