AFP, London :
Britain’s unemployment rate remains at a 42-year low, official data showed Wednesday, but workers’ wages are still failing to keep pace with inflation.
The jobless rate-or the proportion of the workforce that is unemployed – – stood at 4.3 percent in the three months to the end of October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
That was unchanged from the three months to September, and the lowest rate since 1975.
Average weekly earnings rose by 2.5 percent year-on-year in the three-month period to October, but lagged behind Britain’s annual inflation rate of 3.1 percent, further eroding workers’ purchasing power.
Britain’s Consumer Prices Index 12-month inflation rate hit a near six-year high last month, fuelled by the rising cost of air fares, computer games and recreational goods, the ONS had revealed Tuesday.
Inflation has soared in 2017 as a Brexit-hit pound ramps up import costs, which led the Bank of England to raise its key interest rate for the first time in a decade earlier last month.
Britain’s unemployment rate remains at a 42-year low, official data showed Wednesday, but workers’ wages are still failing to keep pace with inflation.
The jobless rate-or the proportion of the workforce that is unemployed – – stood at 4.3 percent in the three months to the end of October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
That was unchanged from the three months to September, and the lowest rate since 1975.
Average weekly earnings rose by 2.5 percent year-on-year in the three-month period to October, but lagged behind Britain’s annual inflation rate of 3.1 percent, further eroding workers’ purchasing power.
Britain’s Consumer Prices Index 12-month inflation rate hit a near six-year high last month, fuelled by the rising cost of air fares, computer games and recreational goods, the ONS had revealed Tuesday.
Inflation has soared in 2017 as a Brexit-hit pound ramps up import costs, which led the Bank of England to raise its key interest rate for the first time in a decade earlier last month.
