UK unemployment by biggest amount since 2001

LONDON (AP) -- Official data shows that unemployment in the United Kingdom dropped to 7.8 percent in the three months to October as the number of jobless fell by its largest amount since 2001.

The Office for National Statistics says Wednesday that the fall from the previous quarter's 8 percent came as 82,000 people came off the unemployment register, which stands at 2.51 million.

The improvement came at a time Britain emerged from a nine-month recession. In the third quarter of the year, the British economy grew by a quarterly rate of 1 percent.

The agency also says that total pay growth continued to lag inflation, rising 1.8 percent compared to a year earlier. Consumer price inflation in October was 2.7 percent.