UK earnings grow at the fastest rate since 2009

Elena Prest looks at recent figures published by the Office for National Statistics

New research conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown that in the period of May through to July, average earnings, excluding bonuses, grew by 2.9% compared with the same period last year. The unemployment rate has remained at 5.5%, down from 6.2% in the same quarter last year.

Commenting on the statistics, Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, praised the news, saying that ‘the long-awaited upturn in pay…looks to finally be upon us, reviving a prospect of a rate hike by the end of the year.’ Further to this, he pointed out that if you strip away public sector pay increases, the private sector pay has risen by an annual rate of 3.4%, far beyond the rate of inflation. What this new data suggests is that families are seeing their incomes rise now, far faster than inflation, meaning that standards of living, as well as disposable income should be on the rise too.

Commenting on the data, Chancellor George Osborne praised the level of employment at 73.5%, taking the opportunity to tell the BBC that ‘the employment rate is the highest is has been’. Also establishing that ‘working people have received the fastest real-terms rise in over a decade’. The praise for the figures isn’t just isolated to the Conservative benches, with Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Owen Smith, commenting that ‘it’s welcome news that workers’ pay packets are increasing’.

It may now seem, after years of saying it, we truly are ‘all in this together’.