The unemployment rate was 7.7% of the working population, down 0.1% over the quarter.
However, ONS figures revealed that the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance in June increased by 24,500 on May to 1.52m, while those made redundant in the three months to May rose 16,000 to 144,000. Redundancies were mainly among women.
The ONS said that quarterly fall in unemployment mainly occured among those aged 16 to 24, with the number of those out of work in this age category down by 42,000 to 917,000.
Meanwhile, the average earnings growth rate for pay including bonuses was 2.3% in May, up 0.3% on the the three months to April, with weekly wages averaging £461.
Brian Johnson, business recovery and insolvency partner at HW Fisher & Company chartered accountants, said that the figures provided renewed hope that job losses are abating, after several months of modest falls.
He said: “The fall in the jobless total now looks less like an irrational blip. But looking ahead, we can expect to see unemployment stay doggedly high.
“Public sector job cuts are still in their infancy while the private sector remains weak, with many companies only hanging on by a thread.
“The notion of the SME sector as a knight in shining armour riding to the rescue of thousands of newly jobless public sector workers is rapidly moving from optimistic to fanciful.”
