Positive UK Jobs Data doesn't mean positive wage growth

Nov 15, 2017, 04:21 PM

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UK Jobs data was released this morning, and they were pretty positive. However there is always a questions on wage growth and if we will see it increase. According to Shaun Richards, of Not A Yes Man Economics, the Bank of England raised bank rates last week as they see the prospects of wage growth being higher. He does however believe that the wage numbers have a lot of problems.

Unemployment has been driven down since the market crash, whilst wage growth has remained much the same. We see the occasional flicker or wage growth improvement. The self employed are ignored; as are the smaller firms in this data set. This causes an issue with the data points. The numbers cannot be as accurate as they suggest that they are.

Does the lower unemployment figures come through in wage growth? Will their be pressure of medium/large firms to push that through in 2018? Shaun doesn't believe it will happen. He argues that low unemployment does not mean increased wage growth.