The unemployment rate in Britain increased to 7.2 percent in the three months to April this year, up by 0.7 percentage points from the three months to January 2009, the Office for National Statistics reported on Wednesday.

The jobless rate of 7.2 percent in the three months to April was also 1.9 percentage points higher than the jobless level in the same period a year earlier.

The report said the unemployment in Britain was 2.26 million in the three months to April 2009, up 232,000 from the three months to January of this year and 605,000 from the same three months a year earlier.

The unemployment in the country will carry on rising long after the recession ends although there were fresh signs that the British economic outlook may be brightening, The Economist said earlier this month.

Britain's jobless rate has gone up from 5.4 percent in spring 2008 to 7.2 percent now. The Economist has predicted the rate will almost certainly go above 10 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency June 18, 2009)