MNI DATA IMPACT: UK Wage Growth Soars, Productivity Slumps>

By Laurie Laird and Les Commons

     LONDON (MNI) - UK regular wage growth accelerated to an 11-year 

high, while employment grew much more than expected, the latest labour 

market data published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday 

showed. 

The following are the key points from the release: 

     - Wage growth far outpaced expectations in the second quarter, with 

wages, excluding bonuses, rising by an annual rate of 3.9% 

and total wages increasing by 3.7%, both the fastest pace since the 

onset of the financial crisis in Q2 2008.

     - Employment rose by a much higher than expected 115,000, although 

just under half of those jobs were either part-time or self-employment 

roles. 

     - Productivity declined by 0.6% over the second quarter of 2018, 

the fourth consecutive decline, suggesting that businesses are keener to 

add workers rather than invest in capital equipment given global 

economic uncertainty. 

     - The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% in Q2, the first rise 

since the three months to January of 2018, as 47,000 newcomers entered 

the hob marked, pushing the inactivity rate down by 0.1 percentage point 

to 20.7%.

     - Private sector wages jumped by 3.9%, the biggest rise since the 

three months to April of 2010, while service sector wages increased by 

3.8%, matching the rise recorded in Q4 2018.

     - Wages in the financial sector (including bonues) surged by 4.6% 

in Q2, the biggest rise since August 2011.

     - Vacancies fell for the sixth-straight overlapping period to 

820,000, the lowest level since the three months to April of 2018, while 

the experimental single month unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in June to 

its highest level since last December.

-London bureau: 44 (0) 203 865 3812; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com 

[TOPICS: M$B$$$,MABDS$,MAUDR$]