Inflation continues to eat away at British wages

Skyrocketing inflation continues to weigh on Britons’ wages, which fell 3% in real terms, that is, adjusted for price increases, in the three months to the end of June, according to the latest UK labor market figures.

Real earnings, excluding bonuses, have “fallen at the fastest rate on record since comparable statistics began in 2001,” Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said on Twitter.

Wages rose 4.7% in the period, but inflation reached 9.4% annually in the country in June and could exceed 13% in October according to Bank of England forecasts. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate remained stable at 3.8%, the lowest level in almost 50 years and slightly below its pre-pandemic levels, “which shows that the labor market is solid” and underlines ” the resilience of the British economy,” said Finance Minister Nadhim Zahawi. . But the inactivity rate remains 1.2 points above its pre-Covid-19 level, the ONS said in its monthly report on Tuesday.

500,000 fewer people in the labor market

Indeed, many Britons have left the labor market since the pandemic, between long covid, chronic pathologies whose treatments have been delayed and early retirement. The phenomenon has not abated across the Channel, unlike in the EU or the United States.

The problem even worsened between April and June, according to the ONS, which notes that “the number of economically inactive people due to long-term illness increased.” This is more than 500,000 fewer people in the labor market since the start of the pandemic. One of the factors regularly pointed out: the long waiting lists of the public health system, the NHS, which has been underfunded for years.

More than six and a half million people are waiting for care considered non-urgent, a figure that has increased by more than 50% since the start of the pandemic. In a country affected by severe labor shortages, the number of job vacancies between May and July fell slightly compared to the previous three months, to just under 1.3 million, but remains well above its previous levels. prior to the pandemic.