UK unemployment fell by 88,000 to 2.43m in the quarter from February to April, the biggest drop in unemployment since August 2000.

According to figures released today from the Office for National Statistics, the unemployment rate was down from 7.9% in the previous quarter to 7.7%.

However, this good news was offset by the numbers claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in May, which rose by 19,600 to 1.49m.

The number of people unemployed for up to 12 months fell by 72,000 over the quarter to reach 1.6m. The number of people unemployed for over 12 months fell by 16,000 to reach 829,000, but the number of people unemployed for over 24 months increased by 39,000 to reach 385,000.

In other figures released by the ONS, total public sector employment decreased by 24,000 to 6.162m compared with the previous quarter.

Estimates of employment for Q1 2011, for the public sector as a whole, central government and the Civil Service are all impacted by people employed on a temporary basis (most of whom will see their contracts end before the end of June 2011), according to ONS figures.

The ONS Public Sector Bulletin states that ‘when these temporary employees are removed from headcount estimates, total public sector employment is shown to have decreased by 39,000 to 6.147m, central government employment by 10,000 to 2.793m and Civil Service employment by 7,000 to 499,000.