Wage growth has fallen back to its lowest level for more than three years as firms continue to clamp down on hiring, according to official figures (Alamy\/PA) (Alamy\/PA) <\/p>\n
Wage growth has fallen back to its lowest level for more than three years as firms continue to clamp down on hiring, according to official figures.<\/p>\n
The Office for National Statistics<\/a> (ONS) said regular wage growth, excluding bonuses, dropped to 4.8% in the three months to July, down from 5% in the previous three months and the lowest since May 2022.<\/p>\n Wages are still outstripping inflation but at a slower pace, as real earnings growth \u2013 with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) taken into account \u2013 eased back to 1.2%, which is the lowest point since September 2023.<\/p>\n The data showed a rise in total wage growth including bonuses, to 4.7% in the quarter to July, up from 4.6% in the three months to June.<\/p>\n This is a key figure for the pensions triple lock calculation and puts pensioners on course for a 4.7% uplift in the state pension next year, according to experts.<\/p>\n The ONS said the rate of unemployment remained unchanged at 4.7% in the three months to July, though it repeated caution over the reliability of the statistic amid an ongoing overhaul of the workforce survey.<\/p>\n But there was a further fall of 8,000 for the number of payrolled workers last month and another 10,000 drop in vacancies over the quarter to August.<\/p>\n ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: \u201cThe labour market continues to cool with the number of people on payroll falling again, while firms also told us there were fewer jobs in the latest period.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cThe number of vacancies also fell on the quarter, though the rate of decline appears to be slowing.\u201d<\/p>\n The figures showed the smallest quarterly drop in vacancies for some time, down 1.4% to 728,000 quarter-on-quarter in the three months to August.<\/p>\n And in a further sign of optimism, vacancies were actually 8,000 higher when compared with the three months to July.<\/p>\n Economists said the declines in payrolled workers \u2013 to 30.3 million last month \u2013 was also at a slower pace in recent months.<\/p>\n Matt Swannell, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club<\/a>, said: \u201cThe jobs market continues to loosen very slowly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gradual adjustment in the jobs market continues to come through a slow change in companies\u2019 hiring intentions, rather than large-scale layoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cVacancies ticked up in August, although they remain below pre-pandemic levels, while there were no signs of rising redundancies.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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