UK’s unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level since 1974 in the first quarter of 2022, but surging inflation led to the biggest annual fall in real earnings.
- The jobless rate fell to 3.7% from 3.8%, below estimates in a Reuters poll for the unemployment rate to hold steady and the 1.257M people out of work were less than 1.295M job vacancies on offer for the first time on record.
- Darren Morgan, ONS director of economic statistics, stated that strong bonuses in some industries like construction and more so finance that the total pay is expanding faster than prices on average.
- Total pay in Q1 of 2022 rose 7.0% from a year ago, while regular pay excluding bonuses increased only slightly more than anticipated, up 4.2%.
The Bank of England expects further price gains will push the economy close to the recession by the close of 2022, with rising unemployment.
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Source: Office for National Statistics
