UK Wage Growth Slows Down

The pay of workers in Britain grew at its slowest in pace since early 2015 in the three months to October, official data showed, even as strong job creation pushed down the unemployment rate.

The mixed signals from the labour market underscored one of the reasons why the Bank of England is in no hurry to raise interest rates with inflation only just above zero and little sign of a pickup in price pressure from rising wages.

Britain’s unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 5.2 percent from 5.3 percent in the three months to September, hitting a new seven-year low, the Office for National Statistics also said on Wednesday.

Joblessness had been expected to remain at 5.3 percent, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

But said the regular earnings of workers — excluding bonuses — rose by just 2.0 percent in the three months to October, its slowest since the three months to February and weaker than a forecast of 2.3 percent in the Reuters poll.

Including bonuses, earnings also slowed with growth of 2.4 percent down from 3.0 percent in the three months to September, the ONS said.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza