LONDON, Feb 11 - The pound held steady below an 11-year peak on the dollar and a 10-month high on the euro on Wednesday after British jobs data showed unemployment fell to a 2-1/2 year low in the final quarter of 2003. The market was awaiting the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report at 1030 GMT and a news conference with BOE Governor Mervyn King afterwards and it took the jobs figures in its stride. By 0940 GMT it was slightly easier on the day at $1.8675 , a shade firmer than before the data, and at 67.78 pence per euro , a few ticks below its earlier 10-month peak. Joblessness fell by 21,000 people on the quarter to 1.46 million. The claimant count of people drawing unemployment benefit fell by 13,400 in January to 892,100, the lowest level since September 1975 and, under that measure, giving a jobless rate of 2.9 percent, down from 3.0 percent previously.//

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