“These figures signal growing turmoil in the UK labour market, with April’s leap in employment costs and a flagging economy pushing more businesses to actively cut headcount and cap pay awards.
“Wage growth is likely to weaken over the course of the year as softening economic conditions, rising redundancies and elevated staffing costs increasingly hinder pay settlements.
“The UK jobs market is facing more pain in the coming months with higher labour costs likely to lift unemployment moderately higher, particularly given growing concerns over more tax rises in this Autumn’s Budget.
“While these disheartening figures will reassure rate-setters that last week’s policy loosening was the right call, the pace at which the labour market is currently cooling is unlikely to be sufficient to prompt another rate cut in September.”
ENDS
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