London
Some of the inflationary heat has left the labour market, easing pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates further, say William Schomberg and Sachin Ravikumar for Reuters. The jobless rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 3.9% in the first quarter– “still low by historical standards” – as more people sought to return to work. Long-term sickness, meanwhile, rose to around 2.5 million and the number of vacancies fell for a tenth quarter in a row to one million amid an uncertain outlook for the economy. The share of the working-age population in employment rose to 75.9%, but remains below pre-pandemic levels. Still, wage growth “showed little sign of easing” in the first three months of the year, says Delphine Strauss in the Financial Times. Average private-sector pay, excluding bonuses, was 7% higher than a year earlier, while growth in public-sector earnings rose to a 20-year high of 5.6%. On balance, however, the latest employment figures should convince the Bank’s
