LONDON (AFX) - Sterling firmed against major currencies after the UK claimant count jobless figures showed an unexpected fall in January, economists said. Official figures from National Statistics showed the claimant count falling a seasonally adjusted 10,600 in January to 0.951 mln, while the market was looking for a rise. However, the ILO measure showed UK unemployment rising 34,000 to 1.546 mln in the three months to December, with the rate up 0.1 points on the previous three months at 5.2 pct. Adrian Schmidt, economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, pointed out that while the claimant count figure was better-than-expected, "the Bank of England's preferred measure was the ILO data, which is lagged by one month. "On a claimant count unemployment trends are broadly flat, on the ILO count, unemployment is rising somewhat. I would be a little bit careful to read too much into the claimant account data," he said. However, the economist noted that the biggest surprise came from weak earnings numbers, with average growth standing at 3.3 pct in the three months to December. "Average earnings were miles below expectations and probably relate mostly to city bonuses, because the ex-bonus numbers were much stronger. That is going to be seen as less of a reason to be worried about inflation pressures," he added. "At the moment a stronger employment data and weaker earnings data is a bit of a wash really, they balance each other out," he concluded. At 10.00 am, sterling traded at 1.4341 usd, and 0.6103 against the euro compared with 1.4329 usd and 0.6117 against prior to the release.