The number Britain's unemployed people fell by 45,000 between January and March to 2.63 million, with the jobless rate down to 8.2 percent, the Office for National Statistics released on Wednesday.

An earlier consensus on unemployment expectations was a further rise to 8.4 percent after Britain slipped back into recession in the first quarter of this year.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell by 13,700 to 1.59 million in April, the largest monthly drop since July 2010.

In January to March, the jobless rate of young people between 16 and 24 years old dropped to 21.9 percent, down by 0.3 percentage point from the previous quarter, while the number of youth unemployment, excluding those under full-time education, decreased by 24,000 to 707,000.

The number of people in employment aged 16 and over increased by 105,000 on the quarter but fell by 7,000 on the year to reach 29.23 million.

British employment minister Chris Grayling said the figures were a "welcome step in the right direction."

Grayling warned about the significant international uncertainty and underlined the British government should "hold firm on current economic strategy" and try every effort to "ensure unemployment continues to fall."

Wednesday's data also showed the number of people unemployed for more than a year increased by 27,000 to 887,000, the worst total since 1996.

Meanwhile, some analysts emphasized that the increase in employment was mainly resulted from more part-time workers, the number of which increased by 118,000 on the quarter to reach 7.99 million in January to March, while the number of full-time workers fell by 13,000 to 21.24 million.

More importantly, the number of people working part-time because they could not find a full-time job increased by 73,000 to 1.42 million, another all-time high.