LONDON, Feb 17 — Britain’s jobless rate edged up late last year to its highest in over a decade outside ‌the pandemic period and wage growth slowed further, data showed today, adding to investor bets on a UK interest rate cut next month.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.2 per cent in the last three months of 2025, the highest since 2015 not including the pandemic, according to the data from the Office for National Statistics. It hit 5.3 per cent in late 2020 and stood at 5.1 per cent in the three months to November last year.