Britain's unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent in the quarter to February, as the country's economic recovery picks up pace a year before the country's general election. "Latest estimates for December 2013 to February 2014 show that employment continued to increase, unemployment continued to fall, as did the number of economically inactive people aged from 16 to 64. "These changes continue the general direction of movement over the past two years," the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.