LONDON, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The unemployment rate in Britain for the three months to last March remained at 8.0 percent, but still the highest level since the three months to September 1996, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on Wednesday.

The report showed that the number of unemployed people in Britain increased by 53,000 in the three month to March over the previous quarter to 2.51 million, the highest figure since the three months to December 1994. The number of people unemployed for more than twelve months also increased by 94,000 over the quarter and reached to 757,000, the highest since the three months to May 1997. However, the number of people unemployed for up to six months fell by 52,000 to 1.21 million in the three month to March.

The UK employment rate for the three months to March 2010 was 72.0 percent, down by 0.3 percentage points over the previous quarter and it has not been lower since the three months to September 1996.