UK Employment Declines as Inflation Outpaces Wage Growth

Source: Office for National Statistics

Employment in the United Kingdom declined in the last three months of 2021, with inflation outpacing the growth of wages during the period. EWU is up 0.76%, and VGK up 2.26% premarket.

• Employment for the quarter stood at 32.485 million, down by 38,000 from the previous quarter by 337,000 higher than the same quarter in 2020.
• The employment rate was 75.5%, up 0.1 percentage points from the previous quarter and 0.9 percentage points higher than a year ago.
• Unemployed individuals were recorded at 1.374 million, 74,000 lower than the third quarter and 396,000 down from the fourth quarter of 2020.
• The unemployment rate clocked in at 4.1%, 0.2 percentage points down from the previous year and 1.2 percentage points higher than in the previous year.
• The economic inactivity rate grew to 21.2%, up by 0.1 percentage points from both the previous quarter and the previous year.
• Growth in average total pay, including bonuses, was 4.3%, while the growth in regular pay excluding bonuses was 3.7% for the quarter.
• Adjusted for inflation, total pay fell to -0.1% and regular pay to -0.8%, marking the first contraction since the summer of 2020.