UK unemployment remains close to 50-year lows after easing over the summer but sky-high inflation continues to squeeze wages, official data showed on Tuesday. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent in the three months to the end of July, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. That was the lowest level since 1974, the ONS said. The latest level compared with 3.8 percent for the three months to the end of June, it added. Despite many workers receiving pay increases to help cope with inflation that is sitting at a 40-year high above 10 percent, wages in real terms have slid 2.8 percent from a year earlier, the statistics office noted. Britain is suffering a cost-of-living crisis as energy and food bills soar in particular.