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UK unemployment rate drops to 7.7% Simon Wilde

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David Cameron says Britain is "turning a corner" but admits the government has "still got a long way to go" on unemployment.

The rate of unemployment in the UK dropped to 7.7% between May and July from 7.8% in the previous three months.

The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has said that interest rates are unlikely to be raised before the rate falls to 7%.

The number of people unemployed fell 24,000 in the period to 2.487 million.

The official figures also showed the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell 32,600 to 1.402 million, its lowest level since February 2009.

However, the number of people in part-time work rose to 1.45 million, the highest since records began in 1992 and double the number of five years ago.

Almost a third of men working part-time were doing so because they could not find full-time employment. The corresponding figure for women was 13.5%.