LONDON (Reuters – British employers increased their workforce in October as a result of ending the job-protecting furlough program. It could ease concerns of Bank of England regarding the possibility of increasing interest rates.

Sterling rose after data revealed that the number of workers on payrolls increased by 160,000 to 29,3 million last month, and that the unemployment rate for the third quarter was lower than anticipated.

While pondering when to increase interest rates, the Bank of England is closely monitoring how the labor market reacts after the scheme expires. It has an estimated 1 million beneficiaries.

The Office for National Statistics stated that it was possible for those made redundant by the furlough program to continue appearing in work data for some additional months as they worked out their notice periods.

The ONS stated that “but, our business survey suggests that the numbers rendered redundant was likely not to be a large share of those on furlough at September 2021′.”

Official data released separately on Tuesday indicated that unemployment fell to 4.3% during the three-month period ending in September.

Reuters polled economic experts and predicted that the unemployment rate would fall to 4.4% in August from 4.5% the previous three months.