The jobless rate in Britain fell to 6% in the three months to August, from 6.2% in the three months to July, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
The forecasts had been 6.1%. The number of unemployed people fell by 154,000 between June and August to 1.97m.
The last time the unemployment rate was lower than 6% was in August 2008, before the financial crisis.
The region with the highest rate of unemployment was the North East, while the lowest was the South West.
Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg Bank, said: “Another fall in jobless claims in September signals that no let-up in those unemployment falls is in sight. In the past year, unemployment has fallen the most on record (records began in 1972).”
The ONS figures also showed that pay increased by 0.7% over the three months, compared with a year earlier, but continues to lag behind inflation.
“There are very very tentative signs of some improvement in wage growth. Private sector regular pay – that is, earnings excluding bonuses – rose 1.4% yoy in August and is up 1.1% since March. Regular pay is probably a better guide to the underlying changes in the labour market than volatile bonuses. Bonuses were weak in August, which kept whole economy total earnings subdued.”
