1123 GMT - U.K. jobs data won't do much to assuage fears that the labor market remains weak, Deutsche Bank's Sanjay Raja says in a note. Unemployment in Britain rose to 5.2% in the three months through December. "Rising employee costs have spurred a substitution from labor to capital," he says. Youth unemployment hit a more-than- decade high at 16.1%, while the share of workers outside the labor market that want a job remains elevated at 23% of the economically inactive population, he notes. And there may be a little more room to go before the cyclical peak in the unemployment rate. "Almost every single survey points to limited hiring plans...Put simply, the jobs market remains stuck," he says. (edward.frankl@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 17, 2026 06:23 ET (11:23 GMT)

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