LONDON (Reuters] – The UK’s unemployment rate rose for nearly a year. However, there are signs of people returning to work. This is because employers struggle to fill vacancies, which has contributed to Bank of England’s inflation woes.

According to official data, the unemployment rate rose to 3.8% from 3.7% in March’s previous labour market report. This is the first increase in this category since May 2013.

According to Reuters, economists expected that the unemployment rate would fall to 3.6%.

However, the rate of economic inactivity, which measures people who are no longer working and have therefore not been classified as unemployed, fell by 0.1% to 21.3% during the period February-April. This was driven mainly by students.

On Thursday, the BoE will raise interest rates to prevent inflation’s recent spike from becoming a long-term issue. Employers may increase their wages to fill vacant positions if they don’t want to pay more.

The Tuesday data revealed that regular pay growth increased slightly to 4.2% over the three-month period ending April, contrary to expectations. The growth rate of total pay, including bonus, decreased to 6.8% from 7.0%.

In the three months ending April, 177,000 more people were employed than in the prior three-months. This is higher than the median prediction of a 105,000 rise in the Reuters poll and also means that the unemployed dropped by 47,000