By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.K. wages rose faster in October than at any time on record - but still didn't keep up with inflation, according to new data released on Tuesday.
The Office for National Statistics said that average earnings - both with and without bonuses, rose 6.1% on the year, but on average over the last three months, they had still fallen 2.7% from a year earlier when adjusted for inflation, which is currently running at over 10%.
The figures illustrate how the economy is being constrained by the underlying tightness of a labor market that has lost millions of workers first to Brexit, then to the pandemic. They also contained a first hint of real cooling as the economy slides into recession: the number of people claiming unemployment benefits rose by over 30,000, the biggest rise since February 2021 and well above the 3,500 expected by analysts.
Claimant count data are for November, while all other data in the ONS's labor market report are for October.