Unemployment in the U.K. failed to fall for the first time since the start of 2014 according to official data.

According to one measure of pay growth, the earnings of British workers overtook inflation.

The Bank of England is keeping a close eye on labor costs as it considers when to start raising interest rates.

Reports from the Office of National Statistics show that Britain's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6 percent between July and September, matching its lowest level in six years, although economists had expected the rate to fall to 5.9 percent.

Since the middle of last year, unemployment has fallen sharply but earnings have failed to pick up. As several people are looking for jobs, employers are keeping a cap on pay wages.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, pay has slowed down the rate of inflation for the most part. Yet, price growth has slowed while earnings have picked up a bit.

Total average weekly earnings increased during a three-month period. From July to September, wages rose by 1.3 percent excluding bonuses. The number of people in employment rose by 112,000 to 30.793 million in the three months through September.

A fall of 115,000 unemployed people in the three-month period was the smallest decline since the three months to February this year.

In September alone, inflation fell by 1.2 percent while average weekly earnings rose by 1.8 percent.

According to the ONS, that was the first time that regular pay had outstripped inflation by that measure since the July-September period of 2009.

Economists expected earnings in the quarter to rise by 0.8 percent on a total basis.

Prime Minister David Cameron is most likely to welcome the pick-up in pay.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the month of October fell by 20,400 compared with a revised 18,400 in September.