Britain's unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level for almost half a decade as more people left the labour market completely, the dpa quoted official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% over the three months to August - the lowest since February 1974. Economists had predicted that the unemployment rate would stay steady at 3.6%, the rate it hit during the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the number of British workers on payrolls rose by 69,000 between August and September to 29.7 million, the ONS said.
