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The UK unemployment rate unexpectedly declined in August, while wage growth picked up, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Tuesday.
The jobless rate edged down to 3.5% in the three months to August from 3.6% in the previous three-month period. Market consensus, according to FXStreet, had expected the rate to remain stable at 3.6%.
The latest jobless rate was the lowest since December to February 1974.
Total pay, which includes bonuses, grew 6.0% annually over the three-month period, ticking up from 5.5% in the three months to July.
Regular pay, excluding bonuses, rose 5.4%, accelerating from 5.2% growth.
Both figures beat consensus, which had forecast growth of 5.9% and 5.3% respectively.
However, in real terms - meaning adjusted for inflation - total pay fell by 2.4% and regular pay fell by 2.9%.
‘This is slightly smaller than the record fall in real regular pay we saw April to June 2022 (3.0%), but still remains among the largest falls in growth since comparable records began in 2001,’ the ONS commented.
According to most recent figures, the UK annual consumer price inflation rate slowed to 9.9% in August from 10.1% in July.
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