LONDON: Britain’s unemployment rate fell again to 4.8% between January and March, when the country was under a tight lockdown, and hiring rose further in April, according to data that showed employers gearing up for the easing of curbs.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected the rate to hold at 4.9%, and the reading added to signs that the labour market will escape the severe hit feared at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, thanks mostly to government jobs subsidies.

Some of the fall in the unemployment rate - the third in a row - was due to a rise in people not looking for work, with inactivity rate among men hitting a record high, echoing a pattern seen during Britain’s first lockdown last year.

But analysts said the data showed the labour market was preparing for the end of many of the curbs imposed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in January, thanks to the country’s swift Covid-19 vaccination programme.

The unemployment rate was likely to peak at 5.9% in the three months to December, after a jobs furlough programme ends in September, she said.

The number of people in employment in the first three months of 2021 jumped by 84,000, the first increase since the pandemic hit Britain and a bigger rise than the Reuters poll forecast of a 50,000. Those classed as unemployed fell by 121,000.

Separate data for April showed a further improvement in the labour market with people on company payrolls up 97,000 from March.

The rise was driven by hiring in the administration and support and the finance and insurance sectors, although the fall in hospitality - which partially reopened for outdoor service in April - was the smallest during the pandemic.

That narrowed the drop in payrolls numbers from February 2020 to 772,000, the Office for National Statistics said.