Wages see highest fall on record amid rising inflation

Regular pay in the UK has fallen by a “record” 3% in the quarter ending June 2022, the steepest decline since records began two decades ago, as the nation continues to battle rising inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

Not accounting for inflation, growth in regular pay, excluding bonuses, would be 4.7% in April to June, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

However, most pay rises have failed to match the current rate of inflation at 9.4%, leading to the overall fall in real terms.

It comes as inflation hit a new 40-year high in June, with rising prices across both petrol and food named as the biggest contributors to the hike. Motor fuels witnessed a 42.3% rise in June, the highest rate since before the start of the historical series in January 1989, while food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose by 9.8%, the highest rate since March 2009.

In addition to its latest wage data, the ONS found that the number of job vacancies dropped for the first time since 2020, falling to 1.274 million, a decrease of 19,800 from the previous quarter and the first quarterly fall seen since June to August 2020.

The unemployment rate held steady over the period, increasing only slightly by 0.1% to 3.8%, while the number of those unemployed for up to 12 months increased, with those unemployed for between 6 and 12 months increasing for the first time since February to April 2021.

Commenting on today’s labour market figures, ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said: “The number of people in work grew in the second quarter of 2022, whilst the headline rates of unemployment and of people neither working nor looking for a job were little changed. Meanwhile, the total number of hours worked each week appears to have stabilised very slightly below pre-pandemic levels.

“Redundancies are still at very low levels. However, although the number of job vacancies remains historically very high, it fell for the first time since the summer of 2020. The real value of pay continues to fall. Excluding bonuses, it is still dropping faster than at any time since comparable records began in 2001.”

source https://www.jewelleryfocus.co.uk/206573-wages-see-highest-fall-on-record-amid-rising-inflation