Britain's unemployment rate drops to 7.1 %

British unemployment rate dropped to 7.1 percent, marking a further step forward toward the threshold set by central bank to consider raising the interest rate, official figures released on Wednesday showed. The unemployment rate for the September-November period of 2013 was 7.1 percent of the economically active population, down 0.5 percentage points from the previous three-month period, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS). There were 2.32 million unemployed people, down 167,000 from the June to August period, the office said. Figures showed there are now a record-breaking 30.15 million people in work in the September-November period of 2013, an increase of 1.3 million since 2010, posing an employment rate of 72.1 percent. The employed people increased by 280,000 in the September-November period compared with the previous three months. The central bank, or the Bank of England, targeted 7 percent unemployment as a threshold to consider raising the current bank rate from its current historic low of 0.5 percent, where it has remained unchanged since March 2009. However, the minutes for the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on Jan. 8-9 also released on Wednesday showed that the central bank still keep the interest rate at the record low level of 0.5 percent, indicating that the Bank is in no rush to raise rates.