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- The UK unemployment rate unexpectedly declined in July, while wage growth accelerated, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Tuesday.
The jobless rate edged down to 3.6% in the three months to July, from 3.8% in the previous three-month period. Market consensus, according to FXStreet, had expected the rate to remain stable at 3.8%.
The latest jobless rate was the lowest since May to July 1974.
Total pay, which includes bonuses, grew 5.5% on-year over the three-month period, ticking up from 5.2% the prior period. Regular pay, which strips out bonuses, grew 5.2%, picking up from 4.7%.
Both figures beat consensus, which had forecast growth of 5.2% and 5.0% respectively.
However, in real terms - meaning adjusted for inflation - total pay fell by 2.6% and regular pay dropped by 2.8%.
While July's fall in real pay was slightly smaller than the 3.0% gap seen last month, the ONS highlighted it remains ‘among the largest falls in growth since comparable records began in 2001’.
‘Average regular pay growth for the private sector was 6.0% in May to July 2022, and 2.0% for the public sector; outside of the height of the coronavirus pandemic period, this is the largest difference we have seen between the private sector and public sector,’ the ONS added.
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