2023-08-15 11:29:58
Average salaries excluding bonuses increased by 7.8% over one year over the period from April to June across the Channel. Enough to compensate for inflation at nearly 8% in the country.
Good news for the purchasing power of the British. In the UK, average salaries excluding bonuses recorded a 7.8% year-on-year increase for the period from April to June. This is the fastest rate of increase since this data began to be recorded in 2001.
At the same time, inflation across the Channel reached almost 7.9% in July, the highest in the G7. In other words, real wages are beginning to stabilize whereas they were hitherto eaten up by the rise in prices.
On the other hand, the rise in wages is enough to give “a migraine” to the Bank of England (BoE) and its battle once morest inflation, estimates Michel Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets, and Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, also predicts further interest rate tightening by the BoE.
Social conflicts
In a study published on Monday, the human resources firm CIPD finds that 40% of British employers have been forced to make higher wage counter-offers to try to keep their employees, given the persistent labor shortages since the Brexit and the reopening of the economy post Covid pandemic.
Expectations of a further rate hike caused the London Stock Exchange to fall on Tuesday, with investors believing that this would have a negative impact on the economy, particularly in construction. British households in particular saw the cost of their mortgages jump, when they were already facing soaring bills.
In addition, while social movements have continued unabated for more than a year in the country to try to obtain better pay and working conditions, the ONS points out that 160,000 working days have been lost due to strikes. in June, particularly in the health sector. According to the Resolution Foundation think tank, a total of 3.9 million working days were “lost” over the past year because of these social conflicts, “more than at any time since the 1980s”, the strikers denouncing in particular their loss of real salary.
Unemployment highest in nearly two years
On Tuesday, the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) also announced an unemployment rate of 4.2% for the three months ending at the end of June compared to the three previous months. This rise in the unemployment rate to the highest in almost two years is due to the fact that people are taking “a little longer to find work” than in previous months, comments the director of statistics of the ONS Darren Morgan.
He also notes that people who are unable to look for work due to long-term illnesses hit “a new high”.
UK growth has nonetheless proved resilient so far, at 0.2% in the second quarter, but there are signs that some businesses are hurting. The British low-cost household goods chain Wilko filed for bankruptcy because it was unable to find buyers or new financing. Some 12,500 jobs are threatened.
The British Ministry of Finance notes in a press release that the British unemployment rate remains lower than that of “Canada, France, Italy, Spain and the euro zone”. He adds that this remains “low compared to historical averages”.
1692099021
#year #wage #increases #accelerating #United #Kingdom
