UK earnings picked up in the three months through July to support Bank of England’s view that continuous job creation will eventually boost wage growth as employers struggle to attract skilled workers.
According to the Office For National Statistics, regular pay excluding bonuses rose 2.9 percent year on year in the three months through July, higher than the 2.7 percent recorded in April.
Pay with bonuses climbed 2.6 percent year on year to beat 2.4 percent predicted by experts.
Factoring in inflation, pay grew just 0.2 percent in the three months through July despite record low unemployment rate.
“While Britain continues to enjoy near-record employment levels, the key benefit of historically low unemployment — stronger pay growth for those already in work — is only slowly materialising,” said Stephen Clarke, at the Resolution Foundation think-tank.
Again, while the labour market remains healthy, job growth is slowing down after a long period of expansion. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4 percent.
“What we have yet to see since the financial crisis is a combination of both strong jobs growth and strong real earnings growth,” said John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC. “The unemployment rate of 4 per cent was the lowest since the winter of 1974/75, but the level of regular pay, adjusted for inflation, was still £11 a week lower on average than its peak level before the financial crisis.”
Recent data showed new investment is on the decline as the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index grew at a slower pace than expected in August, same as the Construction PMI. However, the services sector unexpectedly expanded than expected during the same month. Suggesting strong domestic demand amid Brexit uncertainty is fueling growth.
The pound rose to 5-week high against the US dollar to trade at 1.3019.
CEO/Founder Investors King Ltd, a foreign exchange research analyst, contributing author on New York-based Talk Markets and Investing.com, with over a decade experience in the global financial markets.
Daily Naira Exchange Rates; Thursday, February 25, 2021
The Nigerian Naira traded at N480 to a United States Dollar in the early hours of Thursday, February 24, 2020 at the parallel market popularly known as the black market. While the British pound was exchanged at N670 and Euro sold for N580. See the details below.
Daily Naira Exchange Rates; Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Naira remained weak against global counterparts as the local currency opened at N480 against the United States Dollar on the black market in the early morning of Wednesday, February 24, 2020.