The Office for National Statistics said the unemployment rate fell to 6.4% in the quarter, the lowest since late 2008 and down from 6.5% in May.

 

The number of people unemployed¹ fell by 132,000 to 2.08 million.

 

But average wages excluding bonuses rose by 0.6% in the year to June, the slowest rise since records began in 2001.

 

Including bonuses, wages fell 0.2%, the first fall since 2009.

 

 

The ONS figures show that about 40% of the increase in employment levels in the UK over the past year was among people who were not born in the country.

 

The number of UK-born workers rose by 502,000, said BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw.

 

The number of workers born overseas (including some UK nationals) went up by 326,000.

 

The ONS says the country of birth of some workers was not known, resulting in a total employment increase year-on-year of 816,000.

 

There was a big increase in the number of workers from the so-called A8 countries - former Soviet² bloc³ states such as Poland, Hungary and Lithuania, which joined the EU in 2004.

 

"The number has risen by 178,000 in a year - that's an increase of more than a quarter - eclipsing the rise in any other category of foreign workers," our correspondent says.

 

If you count the figures by nationality, as opposed to country of birth, the total employment increase was 820,000, more than a quarter of which was due to a rise in foreign national workers.

 

The number of UK nationals working in the UK increased by 601,000. 

 

The number of non-UK nationals working in the UK increased by 219,000.

 

The ONS said the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell for the 21st month in a row in June, by 33,600 to 1.01 million.

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