Bank of England governor Mark Carney is facing growing speculation that the Bank of England will be forced into an early base rate hike after yesterday's impressive near 100,000 drop in the unemployment rate.
The jobless total fell from 7.6% to 7.4%, closer to the 7% trigger point at which the Bank will consider raising lending rates.
Economists now say unemployment could fall to 7% by the end of 2014.
Mr Carney tried to calm speculation on Tuesday by saying that the surprisingly fast paced of the recovery won't trigger an early interest rate rise.
Minutes of the November MPC meeting, also published yesterday, showed little urgency among committee members to start hiking rates.
Mr Carney refused to comment on the implications of the sharp drop in unemployment at yesterday's press conference promoting the new polymer bank notes.
But the pound rose sharply as currency traders speculated that the positive jobless numbers would bring that first rate hike closer.
Azad Zangana, European economist at Schroders, said the Bank of England is under renewed pressure to lift rates. "This is clearly coming sooner than expected, and is now being reflected by markets."
Economist Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said unemployment could fall to 7% by late 2014. "Prior to the latest labour market data, we had expected the unemployment rate to get down to 7% early on in 2015.
"But there is now clearly a very strong chance that it will get there in the latter months of 2014. We currently see the unemployment rate down to 6.5% by the end of 2015."
Borrowers already see rising rates as the biggest single threat facing the housing market.
The economy created an impressive 250,000 extra jobs in the quarter to October, of which were 155,000 were full-time.
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